•%-r 


Protestant  and  Catholic  Civilization  Compared, 
THE 

FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 


AN  ESSAY  CONTRASTING  PROTESTANT 

CATHOLIC  EFFORTS  FOR  CIVILIZAXbtflWX&ZdTj 


BY    BARON    DE  HAULLEVILLE, 


WITS  PREFATORY  NOTES  BY   CARDINAL    MANNING, 
CARDINAL    DECHAMPS,     AND    PIC'S    IX.,    AND 
AN  APPENDIX  CONTAINING   NOTES  FROM 
VARIOUS  AUTHORITATIVE  SOURCES. 


NEW  YORK: 

HIGKBT  £  Co.,  PUBLISHERS  OF  "THE  VATIOAK  LIBRARY," 
11  BARCLAY  STREET. 


STACK 

Copyrighted  by  HICKEI  fc  CO.,  in  tte  years  1876  and  1878, 


/Mr 


PREFACE. 


has  long  been  a  battle  ground  of  Eu- 
-*-*  rope.  Nations  have  contended  for  its  commanding 
position  and  have  at  last  guaranteed  its  independence 
and  neutrality,  to  prevent  it  falling  a  prize  to  their 
rivals.  But  there  is  no  neutrality  and  no  cessation  in 
the  eternal  conflict  between  light  and  darkness,  be- 
tween Catholic  truth  and  progress  and  anti-Catholic 
misrepresentation  and  retrogression.  Hence,  while  the 
Catholic  people  of  Belgium  have,  in  their  long  peace, 
won  nearly  all  the  rewards  which  their  Catholic  vir- 
tues, their  industry,  their  activity,  their  honesty  and 
constant  self-restraint  deserved,  they  have  had  to 
fight,  foot  by  foot,  for  the  possession  of  the  most  pre- 
cious of  their  treasures,  the  faith  preached  to  them  by 
Saint  Eleutherius.  The  secret  societies  of  Europe 
have  devoted  their  energies  to  the  corruption  of  this 
people  and  to  the  destruction  of  their  faith,  em- 
ploying there,  as  elsewhere,  with  powerful  energy, 
the  immense  power  of  the  press  to  circulate  errors. 
As  may  be  supposed,  they  have  not  had  a  clear  field, 
for  Belgium  is  fortunate  in  possessing  Catholic  sons, 
of  the  highest  talents  and  acquirements,  and  of  the 
greatest  zeal. 

Among  those  who  have  already  reached  a  foremost 
position  in  this  conflict,  on  the  side  of  Catholic  truth, 
is  the  illustrious  Baron  de  Haulleville,  editor  of  the 
Revue  Generale,  of  Brussels,  and  author  of  numerous 


403 


IV  PREFACE. 

Catholic  works  of  great  value  and  erudition,  who  has 
encountered,  and  always  with  success,  some  of  the 
principal  literary  antagonists  of  the  Church,  not  alone 
in  Belgium,  but  in  Germany  and  France.  One 
of  his  most  useful  books,  is  that  which  is  given  to  the 
American  public  in  the  following  pages,  The  Future 
of  Catholic  Peoples.  This  was  a  series  of  essays, 
written  originally  in  reply  to  specific  allegations 
of  M.  Laveleye  and  to  the  general  accusations 
of  the  universal  secret  society  press,  that  human 
progress  and  the  Catholic  Church  are  so  far  in- 
compatible that  a  Catholic  people  must  fall  in  the  scale 
of  nations,  and  that  by  a  kind  of  "  survival  of  the 
fittest,"  the  great  races  of  the  present  are,  and  in  the 
future  will  continue  to  be,  Protestant  and  anti-Catho- 
lic. This  calumny,  so  opposed  to  history,  to  common 
sense,  and  even  to  the  teaching  of  an  Ecumenical 
Council  and  to  the  Divine  promises,  Baron  de  Haulle- 
ville  examined  with  great  perspicuity,  and  refuted 
with  abundant  facts.  At  the  solicitation  of  the  Pri- 
mate of  Belgium,  Cardinal  Dechamps,  Archbishop  of 
Malines,  Baron  de  Haulleviile  collected  these  essays  in 
a  volume.  Having  sent  a  copy  of  this  book  to  the 
editor  of  The  Catholic  Review,  New  York,  early  in 
the  Centennial  Year  1876,  at  a  period  when  new  oppor- 
tunities were  afforded  for  the  contrast  of  the  work  of 
Catholic  and  non-Catholic  races,  on  a  quasi  neutral 
soil,  it  was  determined  to  translate  it  and  re- 
produce it  in  the  columns  of  The  Catholic 
Review,  for  the  benefit  of  American  and  Eng- 
lish speaking  readers,  especially,  as  at  that 


PREFACE.  V 

time,  through  the  instrumentality  of  Mr.  Gladstone, 
some  faint  echoes  of  the  calumnies  of  M.  de  Laveleye 
had  reached  this  country.  These  had,  however,  been 
long  familiar  in  other  forms,  and  are  to  be  me!,  with  to- 
day in  almost  every  newspaper,  in  too  many  school- 
books,  and  by  the  reader  of  general  literature.  Sub- 
sequently, by  Baron  de  Haulleville's  permission,  and 
by  arrangement  with  the  editor  of  The  Catholic  Review, 
its  translation,  enriched  with  notes  from  the  Dublin  Re- 
view, from  Mr.  Henrj  Bellingliam's  summary  of  the  orig- 
inal, and  from  other  sources,  have  been  re  published  by 
the  present  publishers.  The  work  has  met  with  gene- 
ral approval  abroad,  Italian,  English  and  German  ver- 
sions having  been  called  for  within  a  few  years. 
Cardinal  Manning,  Cardinal  Dechamps,  and  our  late 
illustrious  Pope,  Pius  IX.,  have  written  warmly  of  its 
merits.  Meeting  with  thoroughness  many  of  the  sin- 
ister difficulties  which  are  daily  permeating  the  secular 
and  Protestant  press  of  America,  it  is  believed  thnt  ifc 
will  win  in  this  country  the  favor  which  it  deserves. 

Ifc  contains  an  arsenal  of  facts  and  arguments  which 
answer  the  slanderers  who  daily  point  to  what  they 
call  the  decrepitude  of  C-itholic  peoples.  It  shows  that 
the  real  progress  of  the  world  has  been  Catholic  prog- 
ress, and  it  predicts  that  in  the  approaching  great  age 
of  the  world  Catholic  principles  will  prevail  and  rule. 

Cardinal  Dechamps,  Archbishop  of  Malines,  urging 
Baron  de  Haulleville  to  republish  this  book,  wrote  as 
f  ol-ows : 

MALINES,  January  10,  1876. 

"What  I  have  read  of  the  articles  you  have  published 
in  the  Revue  Generate,  on  the  future  of  Catholic  peo- 


VI  PREFACE. 

pies,  impels  me  to  hasten  to  send  you  my  felicitations. 
In  combating  for  truth  you  have  not  remained  simply 
on  the  defensive ;  you  have  valiantly  taken  the  offensive, 
as  it  is  right  to  do  wh6n  proof  is  cltar.  The  highest 
commendation  which  it  is  possible  to  give  to  your 
•work,  is  to  say  that  it  should  be  studied,  even  next  to 
the  works  of  Balmes  on  Protestantism  and  Catholicity 
in  their  Relations  to  European  Civilization.*  Balmes 
demonstrated  his  thesis  by  a  magnificent  array  of  de- 
cisive facts,  but  the  history  of  recent  times  has  fur- 
nished you  with  a  multitude  of  other  brilliant  deeds, 
which  have  added  a  new  lustre  to  this  already  victo- 
rious discussion. 

"  Yes,  the  Catholic  Church  is  the  mother  of  Euro- 
pean civilization,  and  those  eyes  must  be  closed  against 
evidence  which  do  not  perceive  that  by  her  doctrine, 
by  her  action,  by  her  trials,  and  by  her  labors, 
the  Church  has  been  and  always  remains  the 
supreme  agent  of  the  moral,  intellectual  and  social 
progress  of  the  world.  She  instructs  us,  it  is  true,  to 
seek,  according  to  the  words  of  Christ,  'above  all  things 
the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His  justice, '  but  that  is  be- 
cause she  teaches  above  all  things  the  reign  of  justice 
and  truth  in  the  spirit  which  she  manifests  towards  one 
and  all  of  her  institutions. 

"You  have  c'osely  examined  the  contrary  assertions 
of  a  superficial  science,  you  have  convicted  them  of 
error,  and  you  have  done  it  outright,  even  coldly  and 
ma  hematically;  but  you  have  not  suppressed  alto- 
gether a  sentiment  very  rare  in  our  day,  that  of  a  legiti- 
mate indignation,  which  every  soul  loving  the  truth 
should  experience  in  the  presence  of  an  inexcusable 
error  which  takes  haughty  strides.  This  sentiment, 

*  This  important  work  ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  every 
Catholic  student.  It  can  be  ordered  from  Hickey  &  Co.,  pub- 
lishers of  The  Vatican  Library,  New  York  (price  $ 3.00). 


PREFACE.  Vll 

indeed,  lias  not  altered  in  you  the  feeling  of  charity 
towards  those  who  are  deceiving  themselves,  and  it  has 
supplied  you,  more  than  once,  with  an  eloquence 
which  you  did  not  seek. 

"  Why  do  you  not  collect  all  these  articles  in  a  vol- 
ume by  itself?'  They  would  reach  so  much  more 
easily  many  souls  seduced  by  the  every-day  sophistries 
of  the  world,  which  no  contemporary  writer  has  criti- 
cised more  severely  or  successfully  than  you. 

V.  A.,  CARDINAL  DECHAMPS, 

Archbishop  of  Malines. " 

Cardinal  Manning,  Archbishop  of  Westminster,  sums 
up  the  questions  described  in  this  book,  and  their  im- 
portance, in  the  following  preface  to  Mr.  Bellingham/s 
condensed  English  version : 

"The  following  pages  contain  a  copious  array  of  facts 
and  arguments  to  refute  the  shallow  but  plausible  fal- 
lacy against  the  Catholic  faith  derived  from  an  alleged 
superiority  in  civilization  attained  by  non-Catholic 
countries.  The  fallacy  is  plausible  because  it  appeals 
to  the  lower  and  worldly  notions  of  the  day  as  to  the 
nature  of  civilization.  It  is  shallow,  because  it  merely 
touches  on  the  outside  of  the  question.  Nevertheless, 
it  has  been  repeated  incessantly  in  this  century,  but 
chiefly  in  this  country;  and  it  belongs  by  special  right 
to  the  school  of  political  economists,  who  for  nearly  a 
century  have  reduced  all  questions  of  civilization  and 
progress  to  production,  wealth,  material  development, 
which  are  supposed  to  constitute  human  progress. 

The  following  facts  are  either  studiously  ignored  or 
tacitly  denied  by  this  school  of  reasoners  : 

1.  That  the  highest  standard  of  material  progress 
ever  known  before  the  action  of  Christianity  upon  the 


Vlll  PBBFAGE. 

world  was  that  of  Greece  and  Borne.  But  neither 
Greece  nor  Rome  can  bear  comparison  with  the  moral 
progress  of  the  Hebrew  Commonwealth. 

2.  That  the  civilization  of  both  Greece  and  Borne,  in 
their  legislation,  their  administration  of  justice,  their 
public  and  their  private  morals,  can  bear  no  compar- 
ison with  the  laws,  tribunals,  patriotism,4  and  domestic 
life  of  the  Jewish  people. 

3.  That  the  moral  condition  of  Greece  and  Borne, 
both  in  their  public  and  private  life,  exhibits  a  corrup- 
tion so  universal  and  so  intense  as  to  demonstrate  the 
inefficiency  of  the  lights  and  the  laws  of  the  natural 
order  to  create  and  to  sustain  the  civilization  of  the 
human  race. 

4.  That  the  civilization  of  which  we  are  the  offspring 
is  not  the  civilization  of  the  old  Greek  or  Boman  world, 
which  was  swept  away  before  the  germs  of  the  civiliza- 
tion of  Europe  were  planted. 

5.  That  the  civilization  of  Europe  is  the  creation  of 
Christianity  ;  that  the  germs  of  our  civilization  are — 
(1)  the  Christian  household  created  by  the  sacrament 
of  Christian  marriage;  (2)  the  Christian  people  formed 
by  Christian  education  ;  and  (3)  the  Christian  State 
elevated  by  the  higher  law  of  Christian  morals. 

6.  That  the  highest  civilization,  therefore,  has  a  two- 
fold foundation,   material  and  moral,  and  a  twofold 
progress,  likewise  both  material  and  moral. 

7.  That  the  material  foundation  and  progress  which 
consists  in  the  action  and  development  of  the  reason 
and  skill  of  men  in  arts,  science,  industry,  wealth  and 
natural  prosperity,  as  it  existed  before  the  moral  foun- 
dation of  a  higher  life  and  law  was  laid,  so  it  may  for 
a  time  survive  the  loss  of  that  higher  life.     Great  eco- 
nomical and  material  prosperity  may  be  found,   at 
least  for  a  time,  when  the  moral  life  of  a  people  is  de~ 


PREFACE.  IX 

clining,  or  even  low.  Material  progress  will  continue 
after  the  moral  progress  has  been  checked,  at  least 
long  enough  to  afford  a  plausible  argument  in  favor  of 
a  non-Catholic  as  against  a  Catholic  people,  a  province 
or  a  canton. 

"  Such  is,  in  fact,  the  fallacy  of  M.  de  Laveleye  and 
his  followers;  and  such  is  the  argument  which  for  a 
century  has  perplexed  and  deceived  many  minds. 

"The  Baron  de  Haulleville  has  done  good  service, 
therefore,  in  treating  of  the  future  of  Catholic  nations. 
As  Lord  Bacon  says,  '  Time  destroys  the  fictions  of 
men,  but  confirms  the  judgments  of  truth.'  Given 
time  enough,  and  we  see  that  the  greatest  material 
prosperity,  unless  supported  by  a  higher  principle, 
cannot  endure;  it  carries  in  itself  the  principle  of  its 
own  dissolution.  Germany  and  France  are  direct  ex- 
amples of  this  truth.  Mediaeval  Germany  was  a  crea- 
tion of  Christianity.  Modern  Germany,  since  Luther, 
is  already  divided  against  itself.  The  northern  half, 
which  Comte  placed  as  the  lowest  in  the  scale  of 
European  civilization,  is  precisely  that  half  which  has 
forfeited  its  Christianity.  The  southern  half  still  lives 
on  by  the  principle  of  its  own  creation.  The  material1 
progress  of  France  is  greater  than  that  of  any  country 
except  our  own.  It  is  checked  and  endangered  only 
in  the  measure  of  the  decline  of  its  moral  progress; 
and  its  moral  .progress  is  checked  only  in  the  measure 
in  which  the  infidel  revolution  of  the  last  eighty  years 
has  checked  it. 

"  The  master  fallacy  of  the  arch-impostor  is  the  as- 
sertion that  Christianity — that  is,  the  Catholic  faith  and 
the  Catholic  Church — are  the  obstacles  to  civilization 
and  progress.  Christianity,  as  the  chaos  and  corruption 
of  the  Greek  and  Roman  world  demonstrate,  and  as 
modern  Europe  shows,  is  the  productive  and  the  sus- 
taining principle  of  all  civilization,  and  of  all  progress 


X  PBEFACE. 

in  the  higher  culture  of  men  and  of  nations.  All 
things  are  preserved  by  the  permanent  action  of  the 
principle  from  which  they  spring.  Christendom,  or 
modern  Europe,  with  all  its  civilization  of  national 
and  international  law,  and  with  all  the  purities  and 
sanctities  of  its  domestic  and  private  life,  is  the  off- 
spring of  the  Christian  faith  and  of  the  Christian 
Church.  European  civilization  will  survive  while  it  is 
Christian.  If  it  ever  cease  to  be  Christian  it  will 
die  out — not  all  at  once,  but  stealthily,  steadily, 
surely,  under  a  fair  countenance  of  seeming  health. 
Its  material  progress  will  for  a  generation  or  two 
deceive  many,  till  its  moral  progress  has  been  turned 
backward,  and  its  material  progress  has  issued  in  the 
return  of  the  Iron  Age  of  universal  armaments, 
mutual  destruction,  and  the  supremacy  of  might  and 
matter  over  the  moral  laws  of  God  and  the  higher 
civilization  and  onward  progress  of  mankind.  Donoso 
Cortes  was  mocked  as  a  dreamer  in  his  day,  when  he 
said,  "  Christian  Europe  is  moribund.  It  is  dying 
because  it  is  poisoned.  It  cannot  live  by  matter  alone, 
and  it  is  poisoned  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  oufe 
of  the  mouth  of  its  philosophers."  We  are  eye-wit- 
nesses of  this  dissolution.  Materialists  and  doc- 
trinaires, sceptics  and  Positivists,  and  the  schoolmen 
of  profit  and  loss,  tare  and  tret,  with  their  ignoble  and 
un joyous  science,  have  dwarfed  statesmen  into  poli- 
ticians. These  are  the  pontiffs  and  the  prophets  who 
are  laboring  to  eliminate  Christianity  from  civilization, 
and  to  make  the  nations  conspire  against  the  Cath- 
olic Church,  the  mother  of  their  civilization,  as  the 
enemy  of  their  welfare  and  the  obstacle  of  their  pro- 
gress. 

* l  It  is  a  sign  of  happy  augury  when  we  see  laymen 
like  Mr.  Bellingham  and  the  Baron  de  Haulleville  de- 


-  PREFACE.  XI 

voting  their  intelligence  and  their  industry  to  the 
refutation  of  this  great  deceit. 

HENRY  EDWARD, 
Cardinal- Archbishop  of  Westminster." 

April  12,  1878. 


Our  late  illustrious  Pope,  Pio  Nono,  of  blessed  mem- 
ory, recognizing  the  utility  and  Catholic  character  of 
Baron  de  Haulleville's  word,  honored  him  with  the  fol- 
lowing letter : 

"  TO  our  Beloved  Son,  the  noble  Baron  de  Haulleville, 
Brussels: 

"Beloved  son,  noble  sir,  health  and  Apostolic  Bene- 
diction :  Nothing  is  more  noble,  nor  is  anything  more 
worthy  of  a  Christian,  than  the  zeal  you  evince  in  the 
service  of  the  Church,  especially  in  the  present  state 
of  affairs,  when  to  attack  her  indiscriminately  leads  to 
glory.  Therefore  do  we  rejoice  that  you  again  wish  to 
vindicate  this  Mother  of  ours  from  the  iniquitous 
and  oft-repeated  calumny  that  she  is  inimical  to  the 
civil  prosperity  and  progress  of  the  people.  All  his- 
tory, itself,  gives  the  lie  to  this  accusation.  The  civil- 
ization of  the  barbarians,  the  subjugation  of  law,  the 
formation  of  civil  associations, the  reclaiming  of  marshy 
and  uncultivated  districts  into  fields  and  villages,  the 
introd action  and  promotion  of  the  arts,  the  preserva- 
tion and  diffusion  of  the  books  of  ancient  literature, 
the  solicitude  manifested  for  all  human  necessities,  all 
protest  against  this  accusation,  but  in  vain;  the  same 
accusation  is  constantly  renewed,  and  the  inexperienced 
and  ignorant  multitude  is  constantly  blinded,  and 
driven  to  contemn  the  Church. 

*'  Therefore,  although  unable  on  account  of  the  grave 


Xii  PREFACE. 

cares  of  the  Church  to  read  the  work  on  "  The  Future 
of  Catholic  Peoples,"  presented  by  you,  in  which  you 
have  gathered  together  the  articles  already  published  afc 
different  times  in  the  Revue  Generate,  we  most  gladly 
receive  it,  and  congratulate  you  for  having,  as  you  say, 
undertaken  anew  the  fosk  of  refuting  this  obsolete 
calumny,  repeatedly  refuted  by  the  constant  and  unin- 
terupted  testimony  of  facts.  Their  convincing  elo- 
quence necessarily  demonstrates  to  a  considera- e  mind 
that  the  Catholic  Church,  while  instituted  for  tha  pro- 
secution of  a  supernatural  end,  cannot  but  commend 
and  footer  truth  a  .d  justice,  establi-sh  order  and  r<  fine 
the  faculties  of  man;  that  she  always  was  and  ever  will 
be,  by  h  r  very  nature,  the  parent  and  nurse  of  civil 
prosperity  and  true  progress.  Therefore  does  all  his- 
tory testify  that  these  have  flourished  or  languished  in 
proportion  to  the  many  vicissitudes  of  religion  in 
n  tions;  and  that  religion  being  rejected  by  this  one  or 
that  one,  if  the  outward  show  of  wealth  and  power  does 
not  instantly  go  to  pieces,  it  is  because  it  is  su-taioed 
by  some  vestige  of  religion  not  yet  debased.  We  pre- 
dict, therefore,  for  your  book  that,  many  be  ng 
awakened  in  it  from  thtir  bl  ndness,  will  be  led  to  iorm 
a  juster  opinion  of  the  Church.  As  a  presage  of  the 
Divine  favor,  and  as  a  sign  of  our  paternal  good  will  to 
you,  beloved  son  and  noble  sir,  we  impart  to  you  most 
lovingly  the  Apostolic  Benediction. 

Given  at  Eome,  at  St.  Peter's,  October  5th,  1876. 

Of  our  Pontificate  the  thirty-first. 

Pros  PP.  IX." 


CONTENTS. 


Letter  of  Cardinal  Dechampg,— Prefatory  Remarks  by  Cardinal  Man- 
ning—Letter of  Pope  Pius  IX iii 

CHAPTER  I. 

MODERN    PROTESTANTISM,   AND    THE  ADVERSARIES  OF  THE  CATHOLIC 
CHURCH. 

Lord  Macaulay's  Opinion  on  the  Perpetuity  of  the  Catholic  Church- 
Origin  of  this  Book— A  New  Apologetical  Essay  on  Protestantism 
— Vague  Character  of  this  Modern  Protestantism— Its  Strategeti- 
cal  Movements  against  the  Catholic  Church— The  Consequence  of 
Applying  Buckle's  Method  to  Theology— M.  de  Laveleye's  Thesis 
is  False  a  priori—It  does  not  Commence  by  Proving  the  Truth  of 
its  Principles— He  makes  the  Religious  Question  only  the  Object 
of  a  Study  on  Social  Economy— He  takes  no  Account  of  the  Works 
of  the  Learned  Catholics  of  the  Present  Time— The  Object  of  the 
Book 1 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  CAUSES  OF  THE  CIVIL  OR  MATERIAL  PROSPERITY  OP  A  NATION. 

Is  it  True  that  Protestant  Communities  Alone  are  "  Progressing  T  »— 
Does  the  Phenomenon  of  the  "Progress"  of  Protestant  Nations 
Depend  on  Race  ?— The  English  Government  is  a  Product  of  the 
Catholic  Ages— Civil  Government  in  other  Catholic  Nations  before 
the  French  Revolution  and  the  Reformation— Of  the  Civil  Energy 
of  the  Catholic  Spaniards— Comparison  between  the  Civil  Liber- 
ties of  the  Italians  and  those  of  the  Prussians  before  the  Reforma- 
tion—Companion  between  the  Social  Condition  of  the  Scotch  and 
Irish— The  Swiss  Catholics 23 

CHAPTER  III. 

ECONOMICAL  COMPARISON  Ol*  PROTESTANT  WITH  CATHOLIC  COUNTRIES. 

What  is  meant  by  the  words,  "  To  be  a  Man  of  the  Times  ?  "—The 
First  Temporal  Rule  of  Human  Societies  is,  "  Seek  first  the  King- 
dom of  God: "  Servire  Deo  regnare  est — How  a  Community  of 


fciY  CONTENTS. 

Savageg  can  be  [Relatively  Perfect— One  Thing  only  is  Necessary 
for  a  Community,  which  id,  the  Service  of  God:  the  other  things 
are  Relative  and  Contingent  -It  is  False  that  Protestant  countries 
are  more  active,  industrious,  economical,  and  richer,  than  Catho- 
lic Countries— Error  of  the  Abb6  F.  Martin  on  this  Subject— Polit- 
ical Economy  and  Catholics  in  Prussia;  in  the  United  States;  i  i 
Canada — Protestants  in  France — The  so-called  Economical  Con- 
sequences of  the  Edict  of  Nantes— The  Quota  of  the  Exchange  and 
Catholic  Countries — Catholics  and  the  Book  Trade— Catholics  and 
Political  Life  in  Germany — The  Conclusion  to  be  drawn  from 
these  Facts , 64 

CHAPTER  IV. 

OA.THOLICS  AHD  COLONIZATION 

The  Pretended  Sterility  of  Catho'ic  Communities— What  is  called 
Colonizing— Catholics  in  the  Philippine  Islands— In  China— The 
British  Colonies— The  Dutch  Colonies— Catholics  in  the  United 
S.ates— The  Colonies  of  the  Catholic  Missionaries— Belgian  Mis- 
sionary Colonists 100 

CHAPTER  V. 

CATHOLICS  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTY. 

Protestant  Countries  have  Experienced  more  Revolutions  than  Catho- 
lic Countries— The  Moral  Character  of  the  great  French  Revolu- 
tion—Civil Liberty  in  Italy;  in  Belgium— What  the  Modern  Pro- 
testant Liberals  mean  by  Political  Liberty — Their  Object  in 
Preaching  Protestantism  in  Catholic  Countries— Essays  by  MM. 
Quinet  and  Sue — A  Discussion  between  the  Liberals  on  Liberty  1 31 

CHAPTER  VI. 

CATHOLIC   COUNTRIES  AND  EDUCATION." 

Education  is  not  in  itself  a  Source  of  Material  Prosperity — False 
Conclusions  that  are  often  Drawn  from  the  Condition  of  Public 
Instruction  in  a  Country  as  regards  Political  Influence— Primary 
Education  in  Belgium;  in  Prussia — The  Organization  of  Primary 
Education  does  not  date  from  the  Reformation — Free  Examination 
in  Prussia 154 

CHAPTER  VII. 

CATHOLIC   COUNTRIES  AND  MORALITY. 

Literary  Corruption  in  France  the  Fruit  of  Anti-Catholic  Doctrines 

Political  Absolutism  the  Antithesis  of  the  Catholic  Church— The 
Catholic  Church  was  the  First  and  the  only  one  i^  History  to 
Maintain  the  Absolutely  Moral  Character  of  Marriage— Morals  in 
Spain  and  Italy  more  Pure  than  in  Protestant  Countries—  Illegiii- 


CONTENTS.  XV 

macy  among  the  Middle  Classes  more  Common  in  Protestant 
Countries— Immorality  in  the  North  of  Europe— Comparative 
Statistics  of  Morality  in  England 179 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  REFORMATION  HAS  NOT    FAVORED   THE    DEVELOPMENT  OF  CIVIL. 
LIBERTY. 

Wherever  the  Reformation  Triumphed  it  set  up  a  State  Church,  Des- 
troyed Civil  Liberty,  and  forced  the  Nation  to  Recede,  instead  of 
Advancing,  in  the  way  of  Political  Progress— Civil  and  Political 
Liberties  have  relatively  Flourished  only  in  Countries  in  which 
the  Leaders  of  the  Reformation  did  not  Succeed  in  Setting  up  a 
State  Church,  and  in  which  a  large  portion  of  the  Nation  remained 
Catholic,  and  another  portion  were  Divided  into  Separate  Reli- 
gious Communities— In  Catholic  Countries  Civil  Liberty  is  An- 
cient; Absolutism  Modern— The  Catholic  Church,  alone,  is  Capable 
of  Resisting,  in  the  midst  of  a  Nation  that  Contains  the  Dissolving 
Element,  by  Virtue  of  the  Civil  Liberty  of  expressing  all  imagin- 
able Opinions,  and  of  Practising  every  kind  of  Worship— Demon- 
stration of  these  Theses  by  Facts 191 

CONCLUSION. 

The  Next  Great  Age  will  be  a  Catholic  One 227 

APPENDIX. 

NOTES  FROM    THE    "  DUBLIN    REVIEW." 

Macaulay's  Contrast  of  Protestantism  and  Catholicity  -M.  de  Laveleye's 
Position— His  Seven  Propositions— Religion  and  Prosperity— The 
German  Catholics — The  Scotch  and  Irish — Ulster  and  Connaught — 
Protestants  in  France— M.  de  Haulleville's  Reply — The  Catholics 
in  Canada — The  Future  of  Catholic  Nations — English  Institutions 
— The  Education  Question — The  "Moral  Level" — M.  de  Haulleville 
on  the  Future  of  Catholicity 231 

NOTES  BY  MR.   HENRY  BELLINGHAM. 

The  Plantation  of  Ulster— England's  Claims  in  America — The  Colony 
of  Piopolis — Protestant  Persecution  of  Catholics — State  Regula- 
tion of  Religion  Enthrals  the  Mind— Mediaeval  Familiarity  with 
the  Scriptures — Catholic  Respect  for  Science — Protestant  Prussian 
Immorality —  Evangelical  German  Immorality  —  Irish  Catholic 
Morality— The  Protestant  Reformation  in  England 264 

NOTES  FROM  AMERICAN   SOURCES. 

Extract  from  an  Address  by  Thomas  J.  Semmes— Catholic  Progress 
in  America— Lecky's  Testimony  to  the  Catholic  Organization  of 
Europe— Catholic  Democracy— Definition  of  Civilization  by  John- 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

BOD,  Burke,  Buckle,  and  Mill— Dr.  Newman  and  Thomas  Carlyle— 
Education  and  Crime — Dr.  Laing  on  the  Results  of  Prussian  Ed- 
ucation— Catholics  and  Popular  Education — Comparative  Morality 
—Prosperity  of  Catholic  Nations 295 

Testimony  of  the  American  Press  to  the  Splendor  of  the  Catholic  Dis- 
play in  the  Philadelphia  Exposition 308 

PAPAL  TESTIMONY. 

Extract  from  the  First  Encyclical  of  Leo  XIII.  on  the  Obligations  of 
Civilization  to  the  Church .....317 


CHAPTEB  L 

MODE3N  PROTESTANTISM  AND  THE  ADVERSARIES  OF  THE 
CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 

Lord  Macaulay's  Opinion  on  the  Perpetuity  of  the  Catholic 
Church— Origin  of  this  Book— A  New  Apologetical  Essay 
on  Protestantism— Vague  Character  of  this  Modern  Pro- 
testantism— Its  Strategetical  Movements  against  the  Catho- 
lic Church— The  Consequence  of  Applying  Buckle's  Method 
to  Theology— M.  de  Laveleye's  Thesis  is  False  a  priori— It 
does  not  Commence  by  Proving  the  Truth  of  its  Principles — 
He  makes  the  Religious  Question  only  the  Object  of  a 
Study  on  Social  Economy — He  takes  no  Account  of  the 
Works  of  the  Learned  Catholics  of  the  Present  Time— The 
Object  of  this  Book. 

"  How  it  was,"  wrote,  thirty-six  years  ago,  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  Protestant  historians  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, "  that  Protestantism  did  so  much,  yet  did  no  more, 
how  it  was  that  the  Church  of  Eome,  having  lost  a  large 
part  of  Europe,  not  only  ceased  to  lose,  but  actually 
regained  nearly  half  of  what  she  had  lost,  is  certainly 
a  most  curious  and  important  question  ;  and  on  this 
question  Professor  Kanke  has  thrown  far  more  light 
than  any  other  person  who  has  written  on  it. 

"  There  is  not,  and  there  never  was  on  this  earth,  a 
work  of  human  policy  so  well  deserving  of  examination  as 
the  Eoman  Catholic  Church.  The  history  of  that  Church 
joins  together  the  two  great  ages  of  human  civilization. 
No  other  institution  is  left  standing  which  carries  the 
mind  back  to  the  times  when  the  smoke  of  sacrifice 
rose  from  the  Pantheon,  and  when  carnelopards  and 


2         THE  FUTUEE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

tigers  bounded  in  the  Flavian  amphitheatre.  The 
proudest  royal  houses  are  but  of  yesterday,  when  com- 
pared with  the  line  of  the  Supreme  Pontiffs.  That 
line  we  trace  back  in  an  unbroken  series,  from  the 
Pope  who  crowned  Kapoleon  in  the  nineteenth  century 
to  the  Pope  who  crowned  Pepin  in  the  eighth  ;  and 
far  beyond  the  time  of  Pepin  the  august  dynasty  ex- 
tends, till  it  is  lost  in  the  twilight  of  fable.  The  re- 
public of  Venice  came  next  in  antiquity.  But  the 
republic  of  Venice  was  modern  when  compared  with 
the  Papacy  ;  and  the  republic  of  Venice  is  gone,  and 
the  Papacy  remains.  The  Papacy  remains,  not  in  de- 
cay, not  a  mere  antique,  but  full  of  life  and  youthful 
vigor.  The  Catholic  Church  is  still  sending  forth  to 
the  farthest  ends  of  the  world  missionaries  as  zealous 
as  those  who  landed  in  Kent  with  Augustin,  and  still 
confronting  hostile  kings  with  the  same  spirit  with 
which  she  confronted  Attila.  The  number  of  her 
children  is  greater  than  in  any  former  age.  Her  ac- 
quisitions in  the  New  World  have  more  than  compen- 
sated for  what  she  has  lost  in  the  Old.  Her  spiritual 
ascendancy  extends  over  the  vast  countries  which  lie 
between  the  plains  of  the  Missouri  and  Cape  Horn, 
countries  which,  a  century  hence,  may  not  improbably 
contain  a  population  as  large  as  that  which  now  in- 
habits Europe.  The  members  of  her  communion  are 
certainly  not  fewer  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  mil, 
lions  ;  and  it  will  be  difficult  to  show  that  all  other 
Christian  sects  united  amount  to  a  hundred  and  twenty 
millions.  Nor  do  we  see  any  sign  which  indicates  that 
the  term  of  her  long  dominion  is  approaching.  She 


MODERN  PROTESTANTISM  AND  THE   CHURCH  3 

saw  the  commencement  of  all  the  governments  and  of 
all  the  ecclesiastical  establishments  that  now  exist  in 
the  world  ;  and  we  feel  no  assurance  that  she  is  not  des- 
tined to  see  the  end  of  them  all.  She  was  great  and 
respected  before  the  Saxon  had  set  foot  on  Britain,  be- 
fore the  Frank  had  passed  the  Ehine,  when  Grecian 
eloquence  still  flourished  at  Antioch,  when  idols  were 
still  worshipped  in  the  temple  of  Mecca.  And  she 
may  still  exist  in  undiminished  vigor  when  some  trav- 
eller from  New  Zealand  shall,  in  the  midst  of  a  vast 
solitude,  take  his  stand  on  a  broken  arch  of  London 
Bridge  to  sketch  the  ruins  of  St.  Paul's. 

"  We  often  hear  it  said  that  the  world  is  constantly 
becoming  more  and  more  enlightened,  and  that  this  en- 
lightenment must  be  favorable  to  Protestantism,  and 
unfavorable  to  Catholicism.  We  wish  that  we  could 
think  so.  But  we  see  great  reason  to  doubt  whether 
this  be  a  well-founded  expectation.  We  see  that  dur- 
ing the  last  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  the  human 
mind  has  been  in  the  highest  degree  active,  that  it  has 
made  great  advances  in  every  branch  of  natural  philo- 
sophy, that  it  has  produced  innumerable  inventions 
tending  to  promote  the  convenience  of  life,  that  medi- 
cine, surgery,  chemistry,  engineering,  have  been  very 
greatly  improved,  that  government,  police,  and  law 
have  been  improved,  though  not  to  so  great  an  extent 
as  the  physical  sciences.  Yet  we  see  that  during  these 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  Protestantism  has  made 
no  conquests  worth  speaking  of.  Nay,  we  believe 
that,  as  far  as  there  has  been  a  change,  that  change 
has,  on  the  whole,  been  in  favor  of  the  Church  of 


4         THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

Eome.  We  cannot,  therefore,  feel  confident  that  the 
progress  of  knowledge  will  necessarily  be  fatal  to  a  sys- 
tem which  has,  to  say  the  least,  stood  its  ground  in 
spite  of  the  immense  progress  made  by  the  human 
race  in  knowledge  since  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth." 

Is  there  one  among  my  readers  who  is  not  acquainted 
with  the  author  of  these  noble  words,  of  which  I  am 
only  the  unskilful  translator  ?  *  Lord  Macaulay  was 
born  and  died  a  Protestant,  but  his  profound  erudition 
prevented  him  from  misrepresenting  facts,  and  his 
sound  knowledge  carried  him  to  a  height  at  which  faith 
is  often  to  be  met  with,  but  hatred,  never.  Ranke's 
book  and  Lord  Macaulay's  essay  returned  to  our  recol- 
lection whilst  we  were  reading  a  French  reprint  of  an 
article  lately  published  in  a  Belgian  periodical  by  M. 
E.  de  Laveleye,  Professor  of  Political  Economy  in  the 
State  University  of  Liege. 

In  the  Revue  de  Belgique  this  article  is  entitled, 
"  Protestantism  and  Catholicism  in  their  Relations  to 
the  Liberty  and  Prosperity  of  Nations."  Exceedingly 
grateful  towards  the  author  for  his  interesting  and  in- 
structive writings  on  rural  economy,  we  had  already 
forgotten,  in  common  with  the  small  circle  of  his  Bel- 
gian readers,  the  common-place  accusations  which  some 
contemporaries  of  St.  Augustine  f  and  of  Julian  the 
Apostate]:  had  already  published  in  a  different  form, 

*  Critical  and  Historical  Essays,  by  Lord  Macaulay  ;  Essay 
on  Ranke's  "History  of  the  Popes." 

f  See  Klee's  "  Histoire  des  Dogmes,"  p.  71. 

J  The  works  of  the  Emperor  Julian,  edited  by  E.  Talbot,  and 
published  in  Paris  (Plon,  1863),  are  a  fruitful  mine  for  those 
who  wish  to  examine  this  subject. 


MODEBN  PROTESTANTISM  AND  THE  CHUBCH.     5 

•when  we  saw  three  translations  into  foreign  languages 
of  this  tiny  pamphlet  appearing  simultaneously.  The 
Anglican,  Mr.  Gladstone,  notorious  for  his  errors  in 
theology,  has  enriched  the  English  translation  with  a 
letter  to  the  author.  This  preface,  says  the  Saturday 
Review,  does  not  much  enhance  the  merits  of  the  work. 
M.  Bluntschli,  the  German  plenipotentiary  at  the  Brus- 
sels conferences,  and  one  of  the  professors  of  the  Prot- 
estantenverein,  a  Prussian  community  of  disunited 
Protestants,  has  written  for  the  German  edition  a  su- 
perficial introduction  that  indicates  a  man  who  under- 
stands the  tastes  of  his  readers.  Finally,  M.  de  Savor- 
nin  Lohman,  an  orthodox  Dutchman,  has  not  hesitated 
for  a  moment  to  present  this  negation  of  the  Catholic 
Church  to  his  brethren  in  Holland.  Since  so  well- 
known  men  become  the  god-fathers  of  M.  de  Lave- 
leye's  pamphlet,  let  us  read  it  over  again,  and  see  if  it 
deserve  the  honors  of  this  questionable  celebrity.  The 
French  edition,  revised  and  corrected,  ad  usum  Defe 
phini,  has  been  published  in  Paris  by  a  few  French- 
men, under  a  new  title:  "De  VAvenir  des  Peuples  Cath- 
oliques."  These  few  anonymous  Frenchmen  evidently 
desire  to  prevent  their  country  from  descending  any 
further  the  inclined  plane  of  decadence  on  which  France 
is  slowly  but  surely  gliding  ever  since  the  time  of 
Hugh  Capet.  This  patriotism  may  appear  extraordin. 
ary.  It  is  not  as  much  so  as  the  loose  preface  which 
they  have  put  at  the  head  of  M.  de  Laveleye's  pam- 
phlet. I  say  loose,  because  this  preface  resembles  a 
pavement: 

"M.  de  Laveleye's  words  are  serious,  but  they  are 


6  THB  FXJTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

free  from  party  feeling,  for  they  come  from  a  scholar 
whose  works  are  reliable  guides.  If  he  judges  Ultra- 
montanism  with  severity,  declaring  it  to  be  a  social 
danger,  we  must  remember  that  it  is  not  from  sectarian 
animosity,  for  he  is  a  Catholic ;  if  he  has  pointed  out 
with  a  courageous  hand  the  weakness  and  faults  of 
those  who  guide  the  helm  of  the  State,  he  must  not  be 
accused  of  narrow-mindedness  or  reaction,  for  he  is  one 
of  the  most  esteemed  and  most  honored  leaders  of  the 
Liberal  party  in  Belgium.  To  judge  men  and  things 
of  the  present  we  must  know  how  to  look  for  the  truth 
in  a  really  independent  mind.  That  is  the  noble  exam- 
ple set  by  M.  de  Laveleye.  He  deserves  to  be  known, 
and,  still  more,  to  be  imitated." 

M.  de  Laveleye,  who  is  endowed  with  estimable 
qualities,  seems  to  have  been  led  into  the  paths  of 
error  by  a  kind  of  despair,  the  result  of  a  weakness  of 
character  or  of  an  intellectual  energy  which  has  been 
unable  to  control  itself.  We  would  not  say  anything 
calculated  to  hurt  the  feelings  of  so  distinguished  a 
Belgian  writer,  but  he  so  industriously  uses  the  privi- 
lege of  writing,  that  he  will  allow  us  to  reply  without 
evasion  to  his  over  zealous  friends.  M.  de  Laveleye's 
•words  are  so  deeply  imbued  with  a  partisan  spirit  that 
they  possess  nothing  in  common  with  science ;  nor  is 
his  mind  more  independent,  for  he  writes  under  tha 
influence  of  sectarian  animosity.  He  is  not  a  Catholic, 
nor  is  he  even  a  Protestant ;  he  is  a  Liberal.  Without 
desiring  it,  perhaps,  he  is  dependent  on  that  haughty 
sect  of  subjective  rationalists,  who  disdainfully  admit 
all  religions  and  profess  none ;  who,  if  necessity  re- 


MODEBN   PROTESTANTISM  AND   THE   CHTJBCH.  7 

quires  it,  protect,  "  in  the  interest  of  the  people," 
every  imaginable  form  of  worship,  except  one  alone ; 
viz.,  that  of  the  Universal  Church;  and  who,  like 
Milton's  fallen  angel,  hover  over  the  ocean  of  religious 
errors,  whilst  casting  a  glance  of  defiance  at  the  sun, 
which  is  the  light  of  the  world,  O  Sun,  I  hate  thee  ! 
This  is  M.  de  Laveleye's  thesis  in  all  its  nakedness : 
The  nations  of  Latin  race  are  evidently  on  the  decline  ; 
the  future  of  the  world  belongs  to  the  Germanic  race, 
and  to  that  of  the  Sclaves.  The  French,  Spaniards 
and  Italians,  in  a  word,  all  those  of  Latin  origin, 
except,  perhaps,  the  Genevese,  ex  stirpe  Carteret,  and 
the  people  of  Nimes  of  the  school  of  M.  Eeville,  have 
become  degenerate  ;  the  Prussians,  Russians  and,  per- 
haps, the  Anglo  Saxons  (for  they  are  still  too  Catholic) 
are  about  to  renew  the  world.  How  are  we  to  explain 
such  a  phenomenon?  The  answer  gives  M.  de  Lave- 
leye  no  more  embarrassment  than  the  question.  Listen 
attentively  :  Those  of  Latin  origin  are  suffering  from 
"Cupertinage,"  as  it  has  been  expressed  by  M.  PreVost- 
Paradol,  that  witty  contributor  to  the  Journal  des 
Debats,  who  afterwards  became  a  Bonapartist  for  the 
sake  of  an  ambassadorship  to  Washington,  where  he 
committed  suicide ;  nations  which  neglect  their  own 
interests  are  overrun  with  monks,*  as  another  amiable 


*  These  thoughts  are  extracted  from  M.  de  Laveleye's  pam- 
phlet. "Cupertinage"  is  a  subtle  allusion  to  the  office  of  St. 
Joseph  Cupertino,  introduced  into  France  with  the  Roman 
liturgy.  There  was  a  discussion  on  this  subject  among  men  of 
letters,  in  which  this  word  played  an  important  part,  out  a  less 
important  one,  however,  than  was  taken  by  the  formidable  pen 
of  M.  Louis  Veuillot  who  administered  blows  to  his  opponents 
that  have  become  proverbial  in  French  journalism. 


8         THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

gentleman  of  the  same  school,  M.  Geruzet,  expressed 
himself ;  the  whole  Latin  race,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Liberals  of  Geneva,  have  the  Catholic  virus  in 
their  blood.  This  is  why  it  is  so  completely  corrupted 
both  physically  and  morally,  and  this  corruption  con- 
demns it  to  an  incurable  malady.  The  Germanic  races, 
on  the  contrary,  are  almost  entirely  Protestant.  Now, 
Protestantism  alone  has  the  words  of  eternal  life  and 
the  promise  of  immortality ;  this  is  why  these  races 
increase,  prosper,  become  rich,  and  will  traverse 
through  time  on  the  wings  of  religion  and  purity  until 
the  end  of  the  world.  The  Sclave  races  are  not  spoken 
of  with  sufficient  reserve ;  the  paradox  would  be  far  too 
palpable,  and,  at  the  present  time,  would  have  been 
too  offensive  to  the  generality  of  M.  de  Laveleye's 
readers. 

Lest  I  be  accused  of  misrepresenting  the  Liege 
professor's  thoughts,  I  will  here  reproduce  an  anal- 
ysis of  them  from  a  friendly  and  enthusiastic  pen 
in  the  Saturday  Review,  which  another  faithful  pen 
has  translated  for  the  JEcho  du  Parlemant  : 

"  This  pamphlet  has  just  been  translated  into  Eng- 
lish with  a  preface  by  Mr.  Gladstone.  The  preface  does 
not  add  much  to  the  merit  of  the  work,  but  it  will  help 
to  gain  it  circulation  in  England.  Independently  of 
this  assistance  it  would  please  the  English,  for  it  shows 
the  immense  superiority  of  Protestantism  over  the 
rival  religion,  and  the  superiority  of  Protestants  over 
Catholics  in  the  domain  of  riches,  liberty  and  happi- 
ness. This  is  ancient  history  to  us,  but  the  old  histor- 
ies are  often  true  and  for  the  majority  of  Englishmen 


MODERN  PBOTESTANTISM  AND  THE  CHUECH      9 

it  is  equally  true  and  consoling  that  both  terrestrial 
and  spiritual  advantages  are  on  the  side  of  Protestant- 
ism. M.  de  Laveleye  shows  that  the  principal  vice 
of  Catholicism  is  to  corrupt  its  adversaries  and  to  lead 
them  through  despair  to  the  Ke volution.  They  rarely 
escape  the  indirect  influence  of  the  doctrine  in  which 
they  have  been  brought  up,  and  are  as  certain  of  their 
rights,  as  bent  on  crushing  those  who  combat  them,  as 
well  disposed  to  abuse  power  when  they  possess  it,  as 
any  ecclesiastical  faction.  They  have  nothing  better 
to  offer  to  the  world  than  a  series  of  negations  and  a 
general  dread  of  piety.  But,  as  M.  deLavelye  correctly 
says, man  cannot  live  without  religion.  M.  de  Layeleye's 
conclusion  is  a  very  sad  one.  The  reader  will  natural- 
ly imagine  that  all  these  eulogies  of  Protestantism,  this 
insisting  on  the  necessity  of  faith,  are  going  to  end  with 
an  exhortation  to  the  Belgians  to  be  converted  and  be- 
come Protestants.  But  there  is  not  even  mention  of  this 
in  the  pamphlet.  M.  de  Laveleye  discusses  the  relative 
merits  of  Protestantism  and  Catholicism,  as  he  would  dis- 
cuss the  relative  magnitude  of  two  planets.  There  was 
a  time  when  very  many  Catholic  countries,  and  espe- 
cially France,  might  have  become  Protestant,  but  they 
allowed  the  opportunity  to  escape  them,  and,  as  M.  de 
Laveleye  says,  they  could  not  catch  it  again.  Catholic 
countries  are  destined,  as  it  appears  to  him,  to  remain 
for  ever  the  prey  alternately  of  ecclesiastical  and  revo- 
lutionary despotism,  but  they  are  not  destined  to  become 
Protestant.  In  a  word,  they  believe  either  too  much 
or  too  little,  and  for  that  very  reason  Protestantism  is 
not  made  for  them.  Protestantism  is  the  high-road  to 


10       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

happiness,  but  it  is  closed  against  all  those  whose  prin- 
ces assumed  a  certain  attitude  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
There  is  more  truth  in  this  mode  of  reasoning  than  Prot- 
estants themselves  think,  but  it  is  impossible  to  deter- 
mine the  exact  truth  of  this  thesis,  and  the  restrictions 
it  implies,  without  entering  on  the  domain  of  theology. 
In  the  sphere  of  politics,  however,  we  must  feel  sorry  for 
the  Belgian,  who,  witnessing  the  discords  that  are 
rending  his  country,  foresees  gloomy  days  in  store,  and 
is  penetrated  with  the  heart-rending  conviction  that 
the  only  means  of  salvation  for  his  compatriots  has 
been  taken  away  from  them  by  the  blind  folly  of  their 
ancestors. " 

Whilst  we  thank  the  English  writer  for  his  deep  inte- 
rest in  the  moral  welfare  of  Belgian  Catholics,  let  us 
do  him  this  justice;  he  thoroughly  understands  the 
"salutary"  design  of  our  charitable  compatriot,  who  is 
never  tired  of  bringing  us  into  disrepute  among  foreign- 
ers. Only  a  yea*  ago  he  sent  to  the  Fortnightly  Review 
an  anti-constitutional  article,  entitled  in  the  French 
translation,  "Le  Parti  Clerical  enBelgique"  It  is  an 
imaginary  picture,  in  which  the  Belgian  Catholics  are 
most  unfairly  represented*  The  article  is  accompanied 
by  statistics  of  the  religious  associations  in  Belgium,  in 
which  the  figures  are  so  arranged  as  to  excite  the  brutal 
passions  of  the  "vile  multitude."  Fourteen  thousand 
copies  of  this  work  have  been  printed  for  "gratuitous" 
distribution  among  the  members  of  the  Liberal  asso- 
ciations of  our  country. 

What  is  the  form  of  Protestantism  which  M.  de  Lave- 
leye  preaches,  or  allows  himself  to  preach  ?  Is  it  that 


MODEBN  PBOTESTANTISM  AND  THE  CHUECH.  11 

of  Henry  VIII.,  of  Luther,  of  Calvin,  of  Zwingli,  or  of 
Knox  ?  Is  he  a  Quaker,  a  Puritan,  a  Presbyterian,  or  a 
Baptist  ?  Is  the  God  whom  he  positively  adores  that 
of  M.  Sydow  of  Berlin  or  the  mountebank  God  of  M. 
Guizot,  judged  by  M.  Thiers?  Is  the  Christianity 
which  he  recommends  that  of  Dr.  Colenso  or  that  of  Dr. 
Bunsen ;  the  pietism  of  M.  de  Gerlach  or  the  Puseyism 
of  the  Anglican  High  Church  ;  the  liberal  Protestant- 
ism of  M.  de  Pressense*  or  the  Protestant  liberalism  of 
M.  Bluntschli ;  the  Calvinistic  State- worship  of  M.  Car- 
teret  or  the  Hegelian  Lutheranism  of  Prince  Bismarck  ? 
M.  de  Laveleye  has  forgotten  to  tell  us.  This  forget- 
fulness  may  be  only  a  polemical  strategy  for  the  use  of 
the  public  for  whom  he  writes ;  but  it  shows  a  doctrinal 
weakness  and  a  religious  powerlessness  which  we  are 
pleased  to  point  out.  If  it  suffices  to  reject  the  princi- 
ple of  authority  to  be  a  Christian, — that  is  to  say,  if  a  man 
is  truly  a  Christian  only  outside  the  Boman,  Catholic 
and  Apostolic  Church,  pray,  be  good  enough  to  recite 
your  Credo,  that  we  may  have  the  advantage  of  com- 
paring our  creed  with  yours.  The  religion  of  the  future 
cannot  consist  in  a  simple  negation  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  Make  your  act  of  faith,  then,  in  public.  Will 
your  interpretation  of  the  Bible  induce  you  to  profess 
the  dogma  of  the  Incarnation  of  the  Word  and  the  mys- 
tery of  the  Holy  Trinity  ?  Do  you  believe  in  the  resur- 
rection of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ?  Do  you  admit  the 
supernatural  ?  How  do  you  pray,  or  have  you  faith  in 
prayer?  Do  you  believe  in  the  devil  (a  ridiculous 
question  to  put  to  a  "  savant") ?  etc.,  etc.  M.  de  Lave- 
leye's  attitude  permits  us  to  assert  that  he  has  no  cer- 


12        THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

tainty  on  all  these  great  questions,  and  that,  even  if  he 
had,  he  would  not  dare  to  acknowledge  it,  for  such  an 
avowal  would  immediately  alienate  from  him  nearly  all 
his  present  admirers.  His  only  readers  would  be  MM. 
Gladstone,  Bluntschli,  De  Savornin,  and  a  few  curious 
men  of  letters.  In  religious  matters  denial  is  not 
enough.  What  we  wish  to  assert  must  be  known  with 
absolute  certainty.  Religion  is  not  an  abstraction.  It 
is  positive,  active,  aggressive,  and  accompanied  by  an 
external  form  of  worship.  Subjective  reason  can,  un- 
doubtedly, have  a  philosophical  conception  of  God ;  but 
the  living  God  of  the  Christians  and  the  supernatural 
of  the  Christian  doctrine  are  defined  in  Revelation. 
What  does  the  independent  mind  of  M.  de  Laveleye 
think  about  all  that  ?  Until  he  explains  to  us  his  posi- 
tive religious  belief,  we  will  not  believe  in  his  sincerity, 
and  whatever  he  asserts  against  Catholics  will  only  be 
looked  upon  as  a  personal  animosity,  very  learned  and 
very  elegant,  if  you  will,  but  still  an  animosity,  without 
any  logical  significance  or  scientific  importance. 

Instead  of  defending  the  Catholic  Church  against  the 
attacks  of  M.  de  Laveleye,  attacks  that  are  as  ancient 
as  the  existence  of  this  "  mother  always  young  yet  ever 
old,"  we  would  find  it  very  easy  to  take  the  offensive, 
after  the  manner  of  the  Prussians,  and  treat  a  priori 
ihe  question  in, dispute.  Does  Protestantism  in  its 
hundred  different  forms,  from  the  established  Church 
of  England  and  the  Swedish  Church  down  to  Socinian- 
5sm  and  the  Platonic  Christianity  of  the  Liege  profes- 
sor, really  represent  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  If, 


MODERN   PEOTESTANTISM  AND   THE   CHUECH.  13 

in  effect,  every  one  can  freely  interpret  the  Bible,  there 
can,  logically,  be  as  many  different  religions  as  there 
are  men  npon  earth,  that  is  to  say,  that  some  day  or 
other  there  will,  perhaps,  be  no  religion  at  all.  The 
Protestant  Churches  are,  therefore,  bringing  about  the 
complete  destruction  of  the  Christian  doctrine.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  statesmen  like  M.  Quinet,  philosophers 
like  M.  Vacherot,  and  poets  like  M.  Eugene  Sue,  have 
said  before  M.  de  Laveleye  :  "The  attempt  to  destroy 
Catholicism  without  giving  a  substitute  for  it  is  not  at- 
taining its  end."  And  these  proud  spirits  are  plotting 
the  perversion  of  the  Catholic  masses  to  any  one  of  the 
different  forms  of  Protestantism,  provided  the  latter  be 
the  accomplices  of  subjective  Rationalism  against  the 
universal  Church.  This  is  what  is  commonly  called  re- 
tiring in  order  to  make  a  better  jump,  or  "  bridging  it." 
M.  de  Laveleye  is  not  as-  bold  as  these  radicals.  He 
even  appears  to  dissuade  the  Catholics  from  abjuration. 
It  is  said  that  elsewhere  he  has  been  less  reserved  on 
this  subject.  However  this  may  be,  in  this  pamphlet 
which  we  are  examining,  he  remains  a  prey  to  a  sort  of 
despair,  which  would  afflict  us  deeply,  if  we  had  not 
frequently  seen  him  throw  it  off  to  howl  the  most  un- 
just accusations  against  the  coreligionists  of  his  no 
doubt  piously  spent  youth.  M.  de  Laveleye,  who  has 
not  explained  to  us  his  Protestant  declaration  of  faith, 
has  not  theologically  shown  that  Protestantism  in  its 
general  form,  inasmuch  as  it  is  a  negation  of  the  uni- 
versal Church,  is  the  supreme  and  infallible  expression 
of  Christian  revelation.  He  conceals  the  shallownesa 
of  his  positive  doctrines  behind  a  convenient  negation. 


14        THE  FUTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

A  man  of  learning  never  does  this,  even  when  he  be- 
comes  the  disciple  of  Buckle. 

I  have,  in  effect,  Heard  some  admirers  of  M.  de  Lave- 
leye's  principles  assert  that  he  is  one  of  Buckle's  most 
brilliant  disciples,  whose  works,  I  humbly  confess,  I 
I  have  never  read  in  the  original.  If  I  correctly  un- 
derstand the  analyses  of  the  writings  of  this  publicist 
that  have  been  made  in  my  presence,  the  deductive 
method,  which  is  by  no  means  new,  would  be  their 
basis.  I  willingly  admit  this  method  in  the  daily  prac- 
tice of  positive  politics,  but  I  could  not  admit  such  ^a 
principle  to  be  the  logical  basis  of  philosophy.  M.  de 
Laveleye  applies  it  in  developing  the  subject  under 
consideration,  and  he  gives  us  in  refutation  an  argu- 
ment of  invincible  power.  He  explains,  with  a  certain 
amount  of  boasting,  what  he  calls  the  benefits  of  Prot- 
estantism, which  have  engendered  civilizations  in 
comparison  with  which  the  social  influence  of  the 
Universal  Church  would  appear  in  a  sort  of  irremedia- 
ble inferiority.  This  mode  of  argument  proves  noth- 
ing, for  it  proves  too  much.  In  effect,  Athens  in  the 
time  of  Pericles,  Carthage  under  the  government  of 
Hannibal,  Home  in  the  epoch  of  Virgil,  and  Spain  un- 
der the  Arab  Caliphs,  present  us  with  forms  of  civiliza- 
tion which,  in  a  human  point  of  view,  are  far  superior 
in  splendor  to  the  oppressive  government  of  Frederick 
I. ,  Hie  twelfth  elector  of  Brandenburg  and  first  king 
of  Prussia,  to  the  violent  reign  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 
of  Sweden,  or  to  the  rigid  rule  of  President  Jackson  of 
the  United  States.  Grecian,  Phenician,  or  Koman 
paganism,  and  even  Mohammedanism  would  be  infin- 


MODEBN  PBOTESTANTISM  AND  THE  CHUECH.     15 

itely  superior  to  Protestantism  on  this  point.  The 
latest  efforts  of  German  philosophy  have  induced  Herr 
von  Hartmann,  the  thinker  now  in  fashion  at  Berlin,  to 
make  this  acknowledgement:  "A  relapse  into  paganism 
is  one  result  of  the  philosophy  which  will  unintention- 
ally be  that  of  the  future."  And  why  not?  Look  at 
JEschylus,  Euripides,  Sophocles,  Plato,  Pindar,.  Aristo- 
phanes, Demosthenes,  Phidias,  Praxiteles,  the  Parthe- 
non, the  Yenus  of  Milo,  the  Laocoon,  etc.  What  ora- 
tors, what  poets,  what  philosophers,  what  artists,  what 
works  !  Do  the  Marches  of  Brandenburg,  Sweden,  the 
'cities  of  Berne,  Washington,  or  even  the  court  of 
George  I.  of  Hanover  present  us  with  such  an  assem- 
blage of  poetry,  grace,  intelligence,  beauty  and  natural 
reason?  M.  Theophile  Gautier  preferred  Aspasia  to 
all  the  matrons  of  Protestantism.  Out  of  every  hun- 
dred readers  who  will  approve  of  M.  de  Laveleye's 
pamphlet,  there  are  not  ten  who  will  differ  in  their 
opinion  from  the  witty  pagan  of  Lutetia.  In  a  human 
point  of  view,  is  there  a  Protestant  country  that  could 
compare  favorably  with  the  state  of  Rome  in  the  time 
of  Julius  Caesar  ?  But  will  you  say  that  the  Latins  of 
pagan  Eome  had  so  much  political,  literary,  and  econo- 
mical superiority  because  they  were  not  Catholic  ?  No, 
that  would  be  absurd. 

We  must  not  make  this  discussion  unreasonably  long. 
Yet,  before  concluding  our  a  priori  refutation,  M.  de 
Laveleye  must  permit  us  to  tell  him  one  truth  more. 
For  the  sake  of  argument  we  suppose  what  is  not  the 
case ;  we  suppose  that  all  his  allegations  are  correct, 
that  the  different  forms  of  Protestantism  are  every 


16        THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

•where  seen  to  be  in  a  radiant  superiority,  and  that  the 
organic  and  fatal  inferiority  of  Catholic  communities, 
in  a  political,  literary  and  economical  point  of  view,  is 
proved  in  his  pamphlet.  What  will  he  have  proved 
theologically  ?  Nothing. 

Et  quand  1'autel  brise  que  la  foule  abandonne 
S'ecroulerait  sur  moi !  .  .  .  temple  que  je  cheris, 
Temple  ou  j'ai  tant  regu,  temple  oil  j'ai  tout  appris, 
J'embr  as  serais  encore  ta  derniere  colonne, 
Dusse-je  etre  e'crase  soustes  sacres  debris.* 

M.  de  Laveleye,  who  wishes  to  give  a  lesson  to  the 
societies  that  have  produced  Charlemagne,  Dante,  St. 
Thomas  Aquinas,  Christopher  Columbus,  St.  Vincent 
de  Paul  and  M.  de  Laveleye  himself,  who  despises 
them,  who  proclaims  ex  cathedra  infallible  decrees 
against  the  inevitable  corruption  of  Christianity  as  it 
is  practised  by  Catholics,  is  ignorant  of,  or  has  forgot- 
ten, amid  the  intellectual  voluptuousness  into  which  he 
has  allowed  himself  to  fall,  the  first  rudiments  of  the 
Christian  doctrine.  Jesus  Christ  did  not  come  upon 
earth  to  save  political  society,  to  enrich  it,  to  teach  it 
to  read  and  write,  to  imbue  it  with  the  principles  of 
free  trade,  to  lead  it  on  to  the  discovery  of  the  properties 
of  steam  and  electricity,  or  to  make  it  acquire  a  taste 

*For  the  benefit  of  those  of  our  readers  who  do  not  under- 
stand French  we  give  the  following  literal  translation  of  these 
beautiful  lines  :  "  And  when  the  broken  altar  which  the  multi- 
tude abandons  should  have  fallen  upon  me  !  .  .  .  O  temple 
which  I  love,  temple  in  which  I  have  received  so  much, 
temple  in  which  I  have  learned  everything,  I  would  even  then 
embrace  thy  last  column,  were  I  to  be  crushed  beneath  thy  sa- 
cred ruins." 


MODERN  PROTESTANTISM  AND  THE  CHURCH.  17 

for  belles-lettres.  He  was  born  in  a  stable.brought  tip 
in  a  workshop  as  a  laborer,  and  died  ignominiously  on 
the  cross  for  the  salvation  of  souls.  I  will  spare  a 
professor  of  political  economy  the  trouble  of  listening 
to  a  sermon  on  this  subject  ;  but  let  him  open  a  vol- 
ume of  any  Biblical  concordance  and  he  will  find  ten 
pages  of  texts  precisely  on  this  one  subject.  Such  is 
the  essence  of  the  Christian  doctrine  :  "  Seek  ye, there- 
fore, first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  justice  and  all 
these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you,"  says  the  Foun- 
der of  the  Church  ;  and  all  these  things  have  been 
given  to  all  men  of  good  will.  The  end  and  object  of 
the  Incarnation  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  supernat- 
ural. A  little  book  which  we  do  not  study  as  atten- 
tively as  we  ought,  viz.,  the  catechism,  says  with  its 
usual  clearness,  "  Jesus  Christ  came  to  deliver  us 
from  the  slavery  of  the  devil  and  from  eternal  death.  "* 
When  the  soul  of  every  citizen  is  saved,  the  States  in 
which  they  dwell  are  also  saved.  There  has  not  been, 
in  fact,  a  single  Catholic  society  for  the  last  eighteen 
centuries  that  has  fallen  to  ruin.  Yet,  should  even 
one  society,  composed  of  faithful  Catholics,  dissolve, 
or,  without  being  dissolved,  should  live  on  without 
meeting  with  the  success  which  "the  men  of  the 
times  "  desire,  such  an  occurrence  would  prove  nothing 
— absolutely  nothing — against  the  Catholic  Church  ; 
for,  once  more  I  say,  that  the  end  of  the  Incarnation  of 
the  Word  of  God  is  supernatural.  St.  Augustine,  who 

*St.  Luke,  v,  31,  32;  ix,  56;  xix,  10— St.  Matthew,  ix,  13— St. 
Mark,  ii,  17— St.  Paul,  Epistle  to  Timothy,  i,  15-  St.  John,  x,  10; 
xii,  46,  47,  &c. 


18       THE  FUTUEE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

lived  in  a  society  as  refined  as  that  in  -which  MM.  de 
Laveleye,  Gladstone,  Bluntschli,  and  de  Savornin  move, 
and  who  was  as  well  versed  in  philosophy  and  civiliza- 
tion as  any  of  the  professors  of  modern  Europe,  wrote 
to  a  friend,  to  console  him  in  his  worldly  reverses,  these 
words  which  have  come  down  through  the  ages  as  a 
motto  for  Catholics ;  numquid   Christianus  es  ut  in 
hoc  scsculo  floreres  ?    *'  Have  you  been  raised  to  the 
dignity  of  a  Christian  to  succeed  in  this  world  ?  "    This 
is  only  the  paiaphrase  of  the  text  of  St.  Luke,  xvi,  8, — 
"  The  children  of  this  world  are  wiser  in  their  genera- 
tion than  the  children  of  light."    And  have  you  ever 
meditated  on  that  other  formidable  text  of  the  same 
evangelist :    "  Think  ye  that  I  am  come  to  give  peace 
on  earth  ?    I  tell  you,  no  ;  but  separation.      For  there 
shall  be  henceforth  five  in  one  house  divided ;    three 
against  two,  and  two  against  three."      M.  de  Laveleye 
(page  25),  with  an  intention  which  we  will  unmask 
further  on,  complacently  laughs  at  the  pious  sovereigns 
who  were  so  diligent  in  confessing  their  sins  (a  kind  of 
mortal  seldom  to  be  met  with  in  the  nineteenth  centu- 
ry).    But  governments  do  not  confess  at  all,  and  when 
they  have  sinned  they  ought  to  do  penance  here  below. 
When  a  man  is  pious  and  makes  a  diligent  and  sincere- 
ly contrite  confession,  he  does  all  that  he  ought  to  do 
to  be  saved  for  eternity,  even  when,  during  the  twenty- 
five,  fifty,  or  seventy-five  miserable  years  of  his  life 
here  on  earth,  he  may  have  been  neither  learned,  nor 
parsimonious,  nor  rich,   nor  a  subscriber  to  the  Revue 
des  Deux  Mondes.      "For,"  says  Ecclesiastes,    "the 
wise  man  dies  as  well  as  the  ignorant. "      Could  M.  de 


MODEKN  PROTESTANTISM  AND  THE  CHUJRCH.          19 

Laveleye  have  convinced  me  of  what  is  impossible, 
could  he  have  proved  as  clearly  as  that  two  and  two 
make  four,  that  all  the  Catholics  of  the  world  are,  in  a 
political  point  of  view,  simpletons  or  fools,  and  that 
all  Protestants  are,  without  exception,  transcendent 
politicians,  eminent  economists,  unparalleled  scholars, 
and  that  they  will  become  millionaires,  M.  de  Lave- 
leye would  have  convinced  me  of  this  only,  that, 
theologically,  he  could  prove  nothing,  unless,  perhaps, 
the  approach  of  the  end  of  time,  when  such  events  are 
to  happen  according  to  the  prophecies.  In  a  word,  the 
possession  and  practice  of  Christian  truth,  in  its  ideal 
purity,  do  not,  ipso  facto,  confer  temporal  advantages 
in  the  same  degree, — a  beggar  can  be  a  saint,  and  a 
nation  of  saints  has  no  infallible  promise  of  temporal 
felicity.  M.  de  Laveleye's  thesis  is,  therefore,  false  a 
priori. 

A  Christian  scholar,  who  is  a  corresponding  member 
of  the  Institute  of  France  and,  like  M.  de  Laveleye,  a 
professor  of  political  economy,  made  a  remark  to  me  late- 
ly the  truth  of  which  is  evident— Protestants  and  Liberals 
picture  to  themselves  a  certain  ideal  of  human  society, 
and  they  prove  without  any  difficulty  that  the  states 
modeled  after  their  image,  answer  to  this  ideal.  When 
Catholics  accept  the  question  as  thus  stated,  they 
throw  themselves  into  a  snare  with  perfect  good  will. 
They  should  begin  therefore,  by  determining  what 
ought  to  be  the  true  ideal  of  human  society,  a«  well 
in  an  economical  as  in  a  political  point  of  view  ;  then 
show  the  superiority  of  Catholic  institutions  over  Pro- 
testant communities,  both  for  the  defense  of  publio 


20       THE  FUTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

liberty,  and  the  securing  the  well-being  of  the  nation. 
M.  de  Laveleye  himself  has  not  taken  the  trouble  to  give 
us  a  logical  proof  of  the  truth  of  his  principles.  We 
will  confine  ourselves,  therefore,  in  this  place  to  pro- 
claiming the  superiority  of  our  own,  in  accordance 
with  the  short  but  decisive  considerations  that  precede, 
reserving  to  ourselves  the  right  to  strengthen  this 
proof  whenever  it  will  be  necessary  to  do  so  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  discussion. 

Another  stratagem  of  the  modern  Protestant  and 
Liberal,  polemistgudn  discussions  of  this  kind  is  an  ar- 
bitrary suppression  of  the  differences  created  by  nature, 
difference  of  latitude,  altitude  and  climate,  difference 
of  manners,  difference  of  natural  genius,  etc.  They 
would  cast  all  nations  in  the  same  mould,  and,  naturally, 
in  a  Liberal  or  Protestant  mould.  This  conception  of 
humanity  is  belied  by  facts  *  it  tends  to  make  of  the 
world  a  mortally  fatiguing  abode,  and  to  reduce  the 
human  mind  to  a  colorless  and  dull  uniformity.  When 
the  polemists  to  whom  I  allude  affect,  like  M.  de  Lavel- 
eye, not  to  share  this  error,  they  are  guilty  of  another 
excess.  They  pretend  to  submit  the  "  undulating  and 
divers  "  nations  to  the  tyranny  of  an  exclusively  logical 
rule,  and  they  propose  to  man  as  his  end  upon  earth 
the  passion  for  comfort  and  the  mission  for  hoarding 
up  riches  ;  as  if  the  great  act  of  life  did  not  consist  in 
the  apprenticeship  of  sacrifice,  which  is  the  prepara- 
tion for  death.  I  willingly  acknowledge,  that  M.  de 
Laveleye,  as  a  studious  and  laborious  man,  sincerely 
desires  to  raise  himself  above  the  narrow  sphere  of  the 
sordid  interests  of  the  world  ;  but  I  state  here  that  his 


MODERN  PROTESTANTISM  AND  THE  CHURCH.     21 

political  and  economical  doctrines,  such  as  they  are  ex- 
pressed in  his  work,  do  not  rise  above  the  level  of  the 
philosophy  of  Bentham  and  Adam  Smith. 

The  reflections  to  wliich  I  have  given  expression  suf- 
fice, in  my  own  estimation,  to  sap  the  foundation  of 
the  scaffolding  of  M.  de  Laveleye's  "  deductive  "  argu- 
ments ;  and  I  could  legitimately  stop  here,  neglecting 
to  contest  the  series  of  facts  which  he  advances  more  or 
less  arbitrarily,  and  refraining  from  submitting  to  a 
new  discussion  arguments,  or,  rather,  accusations  of 
which  the  greater  part  have  been  a  hundred  times  re- 
futed. It  is  a  thing  unheard  of  that  a  man  who  prides 
himself  on  his  knowledge,  that  a  professor  who  will  not 
allow  any  one  to  suspect  him  of  being  ignorant  of  the 
"literature  of  his  subject,"  as  the  Germans  say;  it  is  a 
thing  unheard  of,  I  say,  that  M.  de  Laveleye  should 
seize  on  so  important  a  question  and  treat  it  with  so 
much  bustle  in  thirty-two  octavo  pages,  and  boldly 
pass  with  one  bound  over  the  recent  (I  will  not  speak 
of  the  earlier)  works  of  M.  Aug.  Nicholas,  the  Abbd 
Sdnac,  the  Abbd  Martin,  M.  Ch.  Perin,  Cardinal  De- 
champs,  Manzoni,  the  Abb£  Margotti,  Dollinger  (before 
the  Council),  Hettinger,  Kl^e,  Moehler,  Hergenro- 
ther,  Balme's,  Maguire,  Dr.  Newman,  Cardinal  Man- 
ning, &c.  &c. 

We  do  not,  I  repeat,  accept  the  question  as  he  puts 
it ;  but  we  are  going  to  follow  him  step  by  step 
through  his  "  deductive"  evolutions,  in  applying  to 
him  the  method  which  he  himself  makes  use  of.  This 
will  be  for  us  an  apologetic  proof  a  posteriori. 

Before  undertaking  this  task,  let  me  be  allowed   to 


22        THE  FUTURE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

forewarn  the  reader  against  a  false  interpretation  of  my 
intentions.  Until  I  am  convinced  of  the  contrary,!  will 
not  believe,  I  assert,  in  the  Protestantism  of  M.  de 
Laveleye.  I  hope  that  this  frank  avowal  will  not  dis- 
please him.  I  am  personally  acquainted  with,  and 
have  a  profound  esteem  for,  some  pious  Anglican  Prot- 
estants, Calvinists,  Lutherans  and  others.  I  believe  in 
their  sincerity,  and  pay  homage  to  their  sentiments  and 
to  the  dignity  of  their  private  life.  If  these  pages 
meet  their  eyes,  and  if  they  do  me  the  honor  of  reading 
them,  I  entreat  them  to  see  in  them  only  a  proof  of  my 
desire  to  benefit  truth  ;  and  if  any  expression  should 
escape  my  pen  which  m  ight  person  a  lly  offend  either 
themselves  or  the  writer  to  whom  I  am  replying,  I  re- 
tract it  beforehand.  I  wish  to  follow  the  precept  of  St. 
Augustine,  "  Interficite  errores,  diligite  err  antes — 
Deal  hard  with  the  errors,  but  love  the  erring." 


CHAPTEE  H. 

THE    CAUSES    OF    THE    CIYTD    OB    MATEBIAIi    FROSPEUITY 
OP  A  NATION. 

Is  it  True  that  Protestant  Communities  Alone  are  "Progress- 
ing ?  " — Does  the  Phenomenon  of  the  "Progress'  of  Prot- 
estant Nations  Depend  on  Kace  ? — The  English  Government 
is  a  Product  of  the  Catholic  Ages — Civil  Government  in  other 
Catholic  Nations  before  the  French  Eevolution  and  the 
Reformation— Of  the  Civil  Energy  of  the  Catholic  Spaniards 
—Comparison  between  the  Civil  Liberties  of  the  Italians 
and  those  of  the  Prussians  before  the  Reformation— Com- 
parison between  the  /Social  Condition  of  the  Scotch  and  Irish 
—The  Swiss  Catholics. 

"Sectarian  passions  or  anti  -  religious  prejudices," 
says  M.  de  Laveleye,  "are  too  often  introduced  into 
the  study  of  these  questions.  It  is  time  to  apply  to 
them  the  method  of  observation  and  the  scientific 
impartiality  of  the  physiologist  and  the  naturalist. 
Irrefutable  conclusions  will  be  the  result  of  the  mere 
statement  of  facts."  Here  is  the  first  of  these  con- 
clusions :  "Catholic  nations  progress  much  less  rapid- 
ly than  nations  that  have  ceased  to  be  Catholic,  and 
compared  with  the  latter  they  appear  to  recede.  This 
fact  is  so  manifest  that  the  bishops  themselves,  and  the 
Univers,  their  organ  in  France,  use  it  as  a  text  with 
which  to  reproach  unfaithful  Catholics."  This  first 
"irrefutable"  conclusion  is  not  expressed  very  clearly. 
In  the  first  place  what  is  progress,  a  word  that  does 
not  exist,  even  in  the  political  language  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  ?  The  English,  the  most  political  people  in 


24        THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

Europe,  never  speak  of  progress ;  they  only  apply 
themselves  to  the  realization  of  improvements.  What 
does  "  recede  "  mean?  When  I  hear  M.  de  Laveleye 
pronounce  the  eulogy  of  the  Protestant  sects,  which 
are  dissolving  before  our  eyes,  I  say  that  M.  de  Lave- 
leye recedes  ;  if  I  were  allowed  to  contemplate  "  a  sov- 
ereign who  goes  frequently  to  confession,"  I  would 
say  :  here  is  a  sovereign  who  is  progressing  in  the  way 
of  truth  and  happiness,  whilst  M.  de  Laveleye  would 
loudly  proclaim  it  to  be  the  abomination  of  desolation. 
We  should  first  therefore,  come  to  an  understanding 
about  the  meaning  of  the  words.  My  meanings  are  in 
direct  opposition  to  those  of  M.  de  Laveleye.  But  as 
he  brings  the  accusation,  it  is  his  business  to  prove 
what  he  asserts.  I  do  not  any  more  clearly  understand 
the  meaning  of  the  last  expression  :  Do  the  Bishops 
and  the  Univera  reproach  infidels,  that  is  to  say,  Prot- 
estants of  every  shade,  with  being  too  advanced,  or  do 
they  complain  of  the  faithful,  who  are  too  lukewarm 
for  progress,  for  not  advancing  more  rapidly?  la 
either  case  reproach  is  at  least  singular  ;  the  Catholic 
bishops  are  not  devoid  of  common  sense.  However 
this  may  be,  I  presume  that  the  author  wishes  to  prove 
that  Catholic  nations  are  retrogressive,  that  is  to  say, 
people  who  are  not  fond  of  political  liberty.  Whence 
comes  that  phenomenon  ?  It  is  impossible,  says  M.  de 
Laveleye,  to  attribute  it  to  the  accident  of  race ;  for  : 

"The  English,  it  is  said,  know  better  than  the 
French  how  to  make  use  of  the  parliamentary  regime 
and  political  liberty.  Is  it  the  influence  of  blood  ?  I 
do  not  think  so ;  for  until  about  the  sixteenth  century 


THE   CAUSES  OF   A  NATION'S  PKOSPEBITT.  25 

France,  Spain  and  Italy  had  provincial  liberties 
strongly  resembling  those  of  England.  The  only  nota- 
ble difference  was  that  the  latter  had  a  centralized  re- 
gime, and  only  one  parliament,  as  an  organ  which 
showed  itself  strong  enough  to  keep  royalty  in  check. 
The  Norman  conquest  having  unified  England,  a  uni- 
fied parliament  had  to  be  composed,  and  royalty  being 
very  strong,  the  nobility  and  commons  united  to  com- 
bat it,  whilst  elsewhere  they  were  constantly  at  variance 
with  each  other.  The  destinies  of  France  and  Eng- 
land become  entirely  different  only  as  late  as  the  sev- 
enteenth century,  when  the  Puritans  had  overcome  the 
Stuarts,  and  when  Louis  XIV,  by  expelling  the  Be- 
formers  from  France,  had  erased  the  last  traces  of  local 
autonomy,  and  the  only  elements  that  could  oppose  a 
serious  resistance  to  despotism. " 

Volumes  might  be  written  on  this  subject.  I  will 
content  myself  with  answering  a  few  summary  as- 
sertions by  a  few  summary  considerations.  The  great 
misfortune  of  France  has  been,  as  M.  de  Laveleye  ac- 
knowledges (page  15),  that  it  has  been  governed,  ever 
since  the  fourteenth  century,  by  the  Eenaissance, 
which  is  in  reality  only  the  same  thing  as  modern  Lib- 
eralism. The  doctrines  of  the  French  government, 
then  represented  by  royalty,  were  liberal  in  principle. 
"French  unity"  is  one  of  the  principal  results  of  this 
policy,  which  radical  historians,  like  MM.  Michelet, 
Quinet,  Blanc,  Esquiros  and  even  H.  Martin,  praise  in 
a  manner  so  compromising  to  the  successors  of  St.  Louis. 
England,  in  its  government,  has  had  the  happiness^  of 
preserving,  even  after  the  Beformation,  all  the  po- 


26        THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOMC  PEOPLES. 

litical  principles  of  the  Catholic  Middle  Ages  ;  fortu- 
nately, it  obstinately  resisted  the  introduction  of  the 
Roman  law,  whose  royal  Caesarism  inundated  almost 
the  entire  continent  from  the  beginning  of  the  Renais- 
sance ;  it  has  preserved  the  text  and  principles  of  the 
Magna  Charta*  under  which  the  signature  of  Stephen 
Langton,  a  cardinal  of  the  Roman  Church,  figures  at 
the  head  of  the  list ;  it  has  preserved  all  its  national  tra- 
ditions, all  its  ancient  laws  ;  but  lately  it  referred  with 
pride  to  customs  of  the  time  of  Alfred  the  Great;  it  has 
preserved  intact  the  interior  organization  of  its  secular 
government,  and  even  the  exterior  form  of  the  Roman 
Church.  Since  the  Reformation,  a  remarkable  phe= 
nomenon  is  every  day  presented  to  our  observation  : 
the  English  people  ceases  to  be  Roman  Catholic,  under 
the  influence  of  what  unworthy  means  is  very  well 
known,  but  it  preserves  a  form  of  government  which 
has  remained  until  the  present  moment,  throughout  its 
whole  extent,  the  most  Catholic  government  in  Europe  • 
whilst  the  French  nation,  even  while  it  continues  in 
the  generality  of  its  members  to  be  the  eldest  of 
Catholic  nations,  has  not  ceased,  unless  Louis  XVI. 
be  counted  an  exception,  to  be  governed  by  princes 
and  statesmen  whose  political  doctrines  are  in 
direct  antipathy  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  This  is  a 
point  of  the  philosophy  of  history  which  a  former  ed- 
itor of  the  Univers,  but  at  present  of  the  Monde,  of 
Paris,  has  clearly  proved  in  works  that  are  not  read  as 
generally  as  they  deserve  to  be.  Let  no  one  come  to 
us,  Catholics,  to  throw  in  our  face  as  an  insult  the  glo- 
riotis  history  of  English  institutions.  They  are  ours. 


THE  CAtJSES  OF  A  NATION'S  PBOSPEBITT.  27 

I  admire  them  with  all  my  heart,  and  I  tremble  with 
respect  every  time  I  enter  that  noble  palace  of  West- 
minster to  be  present  at  a  session  of  the  Imperial  Par- 
liament of  England,  the  foremost  political  assembly  in 
the  world.  The  session  is  presided  over  by  a  man  who 
wears  the  costume  of  the  Middle  Ages :  he  has  an  alm- 
oner who  recites  the  Christian  prayers  as  in  the  time  of 
Philip  of  Hainault.  At  the  distance  of  two  paces  from 
his  seat  is  the  tomb  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  relig- 
iously respected  in  its  admirable  primitive  form.  In 
proceeding  from  the  church  to  the  great  hall  of  John 
Lackland  we  must  pass  by  a  cemetery  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  which  the  piety  of  the  English  people  respects 
in  the  midst  of  London,  and  which  our  "  progressist" 
ediles  would  soon  transform  into  a  boulevard  to  walk 
upon  (progredi).  I  defy  our  continental  liberals  to 
accept  the  English  institutions,  or  even  those  of  Amer- 
ica which  are  derived  from  them.  But  let  us  not  allow 
ourselves  to  be  led  away  by  this  all-absorbing  subject. 
The  representative  government  "  on  the  English 
plan"  is  a  product  of  the  Catholic  Middle  Ages.  It  has 
been  lost  in  France  since  the  time  of  Louis  XI.,  before 
the  official  birth  of  Protestantism.  Since  the  Refor- 
mation it  has  always  remained  unknown  to  the  most 
Protestant  power  in  Europe,  the  Electorate  of  Branden- 
burg, in  this  sense  the  retrogressive  power  by  ex- 
cellence ;  and  it  was  preserved  in  the  Netherlands, 
among  the  Protestants  of  the  North  as  well  as  among 
the  Catholics  of  the  South,  down  to  the  time  of  the 
"  liberal"  Joseph  II.,  and  the  arrival  of  the  "liberat- 
ing" army  of  Dumouriez,  which  deprived  us  of  our  in- 


28        THE  FUTUKE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

dependence  and  our  secular  liberties  by  infecting  us 
with  the  principles  of  the  French  [Revolution.  Did  not 
the  ecclesiastical  principality  of  Liege,  whence  M.  de 
Laveleye  now  issues  his  rash  judgments,  possess  with- 
out interruption,  until  the  "immortal  con  quests  of  '89," 
a  representative  government  "on  the  English  plan  ?" 
If  he  is  ignorant  of  the  fact,  let  him  read  the  latest  work 
of  M.  Poulet,  the  eminent  Louvain  prof  essor,  and  those 
of  the  learned  Canon  Paris.  And  in  Switzerland,  a 
land  in  which  the  Catholic  Church  and  free  institutions 
were  united  for  centuries  before  Calvin's  time,  did  not 
the  Catholic  cantons  preserve  their  Christian  democra- 
cies, as  well  as  the  Protestant  cantons,  until  their  *  'deliv- 
erance "  by  the  Sonderbund  war  ?  And  the  Tyrol?  It 
but  lately  celebrated  the  fifth  centenary  of  the  founda- 
tion of  its  local  institutions.  M.  de  Laveleye  may 
wonder,  if  he  please,  how  this  fortunate  corner  of  Europe 
"can  live  peacefully  only  under  the  dominion  of  Rome. " 
The  Tyrolese  have  no  reason  to  envy  any  people,  so  far 
as  historical  traditions,  nobleness  of  heart,  vigor  of  body 
and  mind,  and  all  the  virtues  that  make  men  free  and 
bold  are  concerned.  And  was  the  constitution  which 
St.  Stephen  gave  to  Hungary  a  chart  of  bondage  ?  Was 
it  inferior  in  its  institutions  to  the  ancient  English  con- 
stitution ?  And  because  there  were  no  Puritans,  Qua- 
kers or  Presbyterians  in  the  ecclesiastical  electorates 
of  the  holy  empire,  do  you  think  seriously  for  a  moment 
that  the  people  were  less  free  and  more  corrupt  than 
the  half -savage  Scotch?  Look  at  Westphalia,  where 
the  peasants  had  trusts;  the  Ehenish  provinces  in  which 
both  city  and  rural  life  first  approached  anything  like 


THE   CAUSES  OF  A  NATION'S  PROSPERITY.  29 

perfection ;  Catholic  Swabia  and  Franconia,  whose  in- 
habitants have  preserved  a  vigor  which  made  itself  con- 
spicuous in  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  under  the  empire  of  the  French  Eevolution,  and 
at  a  still  more  recent  date  ;  and  maintain,  if  you  dare, 
that  all  these  lands,  blessed  by  St.  Boniface,  have  pro- 
duced races  that  have  been  degenerated  by  the  Catholic 
faith,  which  has  preserved  them  strong  and  pure  in 
spite  of  liberal  governments  ? 

The  example  of  Spain  confirms  my  thesis  in  a  most 
remarkable  manner.  Since  the  time  of  Charles  V.  this 
country  has  been  robbed  of  the  institutions  which  we 
call,  for  the  sake  of  brevity,  the  representative 
regime.  The  absolutism  of  Philip  n.  and  his  success- 
ors, who  experienced  in  their  own  persons  the  influence 
of  the  Kenaissance  ;  then  the  political  folly  of  the 
Bourbons,  and  finally  the  Liberals  of  the  present  cen- 
tury (the  JLiberdles, — the  word  belongs  to  the  country 
of  Cervantes),  in  a  word,  the  Spanish  government  has 
exerted  all  its  influence  to  corrupt  politically  an  admi- 
rable country,  inhabited  by  the  most  energetic  race  in 
Europe.  I  say,  that  people  has  resisted  because  it  was 
Catholic.  For  more  than  seven  centuries — the  total 
duration  of  ancient  Eome — the  Catholic  Goths  of  Spain, 
having  taken  refuge  in  the  mountain  caverns  of  the 
Asturias,  watched,  prayed  and  fought  to  preserve  their 
own  homes  and  even  Europe  from  the  corroding  influ- 
ence of  Islamism.  Their  national  assemblies  were 
councils  ;  their  laws  were  democratic  in  the  Christian 
sense  of  the  word,  but  they  were  so  penetrated  with 
the  spirit  of  religion  that  they  were  called  by  ecclesi- 


30        THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

astical  names.  For  more  than  seven  centuries  these 
Catholic  giants  fought,  and  they  triumphed.  Scarcely 
had  their  indomitable  valor  relieved  them  from  the 
Moslems  when  they  were  obliged  for  three  centuries 
to  bear  the  heavy  yoke  of  royal  absolutism.  In  a  short 
time  the  traces  of  their  ancient  institutions  are  to  be 
found  only  amid  the  mountains  of  Navarre.  But  the 
Catholic  faith  remained  in  Spain  as  the  coals  live  be- 
neath the  ashes.  Napoleon  appears  on  the  scene.  He 
says :  Spain  is  a  nation  of  monks ;  its  people  are 
cowards  ;  I  will  make  an  easy  conquest  of  them.  You 
know  what  happened.  The  Spaniards  of  the  beginning 
of  this  century  proved  themselves  worthy  descendants 
of  the  conquerors  of  the  Mussulmans  ;  Catholic  Spain 
inflicted  the  first  mortal  blow  on  the  absolutism  that 
menaced  Europe.  Then  reigned  in  turn  the  different 
shades  of  the  Liberates*  who  have  reduced  the  country 
of  Isabella  the  Catholic  to  the  state  in  which  we  now 
eee  it.  The  mass  of  the  Catholic  people  of  Spain 
resists  this  third  trial,  and  I  am  convinced  that  this 
noble  country,  which  has  been  brought  up,  nourished, 
and  instructed  on  the  maternal  knee  of  the  Church, 
will  become  once  more,  in  its  religious  unity,  one  of 
the  foremost  nations  in  the  world.  Its  literature  is 
superior  in  grandeur,  moral  richness,  and  aesthetic 
splendor  to  all  the  Protestant  literature  in  the  world ; 
its  painters  and  architects  hold  the  first  rank  in  the 
pantheon  of  artists  ;  it  possesses  a  clergy  whose  bish- 
ops stupefied  (this  is  the  expression  of  Cardinal  De- 
champs,  who  told  it  to  me  and  who  knows  it  himself) 
the  Fathers  of  the  Vatican  Council  by  the  soundness  of 


THE  OAU3E8  OP   A  NATION'S  PROSPERITY.  31 

their  extensive  knowledge ;  it  possesses  monuments 
which  resemble  poems  in  stone ;  it  has  had  the  com- 
merce of  the  world  within  its  power  ;  it  has  endowed 
humanity  with  half  of  our  globe ;  it  has  founded,  by 
itself  alone,  more  colonies  than  all  the  other  nations 
put  together.  Spain  has  been,  is,  and  will  remain  the 
Catholic  country,  by  excellence.  You  say  it  is  the 
Church  that  has  diminished  the  greatness  and  power 
of  Spain.  That  is  an  historical  absurdity.  It  is  you, 
it  is  your  friends,  your  political  idols  who  have  momen- 
tarily interrupted  civil  germination  in  this  energeti- 
cally fruitful  land, — the  country  of  the  Asturian  Goths, 
of  the  Cid,  and  of  the  JZomanceros,  the  country  of  Mu- 
rillo  and  Velasquez,  of  Lope  de  Vega,  Calderon  and 
Cervantes,  the  adopted  mother  of  Christopher  Colum- 
bus and  Hernando  Cortez,  the  tomb  of  Charles  V.,  the 
cradle  of  St.  Ignatius  and  of  Balm^s.  I  have  just  pro- 
nounced the  name  of  one  of  Jbhe  profoundest  thinkers 
of  the  present  century, — the  Catalan  Don  Jayme  Bal- 
me's,  who  died  at  Vich  in  1848,  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
eight  years,  after  a  literary,  philosophical  and  political 
career  whose  renown  is  increasing  with  the  progress 
of  time.  He  has  left  a  work  which  M.  de  Laveleye 
would  do  well  to  meditate  upon  before  finally  accepting 
the  eulogies  of  MM.  Gladstone,  Bluntschli,  and  the 
editors  of  the  Chronique  /  viz.,  "Protestantism  Com- 
pared with  Catholicity."  Saline's,  who  was  not  a 
Caiiist,  wrote  admirable  pages  about  his  country. 
Here  is  one  which  will  perhaps  induce  you  to  read 
more:  — 

"We  may  expect  much  from  the  right  instinct  of  the 


32        THE  FUTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

Spanish  nation,  from  her  proverbial  gravity,  which  so 
many  misfortunes  have  only  augmented,  and  from  that 
tact,  which  teaches  her  so  well  how  to  discern  the  true 
path  to  happiness,  by  rendering  her  deaf  to  the  insid- 
ious suggestions  of  those  who  seek  to  lead  her  astray. 
Although  for  so  many  years,  owing  to  a  fatal  combina- 
tion of  circumstances,  and  a  want  of  harmony  between 
the  social  and  political  order,  Spain  has  not  been  able 
to  obtain  a  government  which  understands  her  f  eelings 
and  instincts,  follows  her  inclinations,  and  promotes  her 
prosperity,  we  still  cherish  the  hope  that  the  day  will 
come  when  from  her  own  bosom,  so  fertile  in  future 
life,  will  come  forth  the  harmony  which  she  seeks  and 
the  equilibrium  which  she  has  lost*  In  the  meantime, 
it  is  of  the  highest  importance  that  all  men  who  have  a 
Spanish  heart  in  their  breasts,  and  who  do  not  wish  to 
see  the  vitals  of  their  country  torn  to  pieces,  should 
unite  and  act  in  concert  to  preserve  her  from  the 
genius  of  evil.  Their  unanimity  will  prevent  the 
seeds  of  perpetual  discord  from  being  scattered  upon 
our  soil,  will  ward  off  this  additional  calamity,  and  will 
preserve  from  destruction  those  precious  germs  whence 
may  arise,  with  renovated  vigor,  our  civilization,  which 
has  been  so  much  injured  by  disastrous  events. 

"  The  soul  is  overwhelmed  with  painful  apprehensions 
at  the  thought  that  a  day  may  come  when  religious 
unity  will  be  banished  from  among  ns ;  that  unity 
which  is  identified  with  our  habits,  our  customs,  our 
manners,  our  laws  ;  which  guarded  the  cradle  of  our 
monarchy  in  the  cavern  of  Covadonga,  and  which  was 
the  emblem  on  our  standard  during  a  struggle  of  eight 


THE  CAUSES  OF   A  NATION'S  PROSPERITY.  83 

centuries  against  the  formidable  crescent ;  that  unity 
which  developed  and  illustrated  our  civilization  in 
times  of  the  greatest  difficulty ;  that  unity  which  fol- 
lowed our  terrible  tercios,  when  they  imposed  silence 
upon  Europe ;  which  led  our  sailors  when  they  discov- 
ered the  New  World,  and  guided  them  when  they  for 
the  first  time  made  the  circuit  of  the  globe ;  that  unity 
which  sustains  our  soldiers  in  their  most  heroic  ex- 
ploits, and  which,  at  a  recent  period,  gave  the  climax 
to  their  many  glorious  deeds  in  the  downfall  of  Napo- 
leon. You  who  condemn  so  rashly  the  work  of  ages  ; 
you  who  offer  so  many  insults  to  the  Spanish  nation, 
and  who  treat  as  barbarism  and  ignorance  the  regulat- 
ing principle  of  our  civilization,  do  you  know  what  it  is 
you  insult  ?  Do  you  know  what  inspired  the  genius  of 
Gonzalvo,  of  Hernando  Cortez,  of  the  conqueror  of 
Lepauto  ?  Do  not  the  shades  of  Garcilazo,  of  Herrera, 
of  Ercilla,  of  Fray  Luis  de  Leon,  of  Cervantes,  of  Lope 
de  Vega,  inspire  you  with  any  respect  ?  Can  you  ven- 
ture to  break  the  tie  which  connects  us  with  them,  to 
make  us  the  unworthy  posterity  of  these  great  men  ? 
Do  you  wish  to  place  an  impassable  barrier  between 
their  faith  and  ours,  between  their  manners  and  ours ; 
to  make  us  destroy  all  our  traditions,  and  to  forget  our 
most  inspiring  recollections  ?  Do  you  wish  to  preserve 
the  great  and  august  monuments  of  our  ancestors'  piety 
among  us  only  as  a  severe  and  eloquent  reproach  ? 
Will  you  consent  to  see  dried  up  the  most  abundant 
fountains  to  which  we  can  have  recourse  to  revive  lite- 
rature, to  strengthen  science,  to  reorganize  legislation, 
to  reestablish  the  spirit  of  nationality,  to  restore  our 


34        THE  FUTUKB  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

glory,  and  replace  this  nation  in  the  high  position 
which  her  virtues  merit,  by  restoring  to  her  the  peace 
and  happiness  which  she  seeks  with  so  much  anxiety, 
and  which  her  heart  requires  ?"  * 

M.  de  Laveleye  is  so  fond  of  making  prophecies 
that  he  will  allow  me  to  make  one  cursorily  ;  it  will  not 
frighten  him,  for  it  is  very  clerical,  and  has  against  it 
all  the  appearances  of  the  successes  of  our  time.  I 
take  it  from  my  reason,  "corrupted"  by  the  catechism. 
This  is  my  prophecy  :  Catholic  Spain  will  be  great  when 
Lutheran  Prussia  will  be  no  longer  in  existence,  or  will 
be  reduced,  perhaps,  to  the  March  of  Brandenburg, 
bis  an  die  March,  as  a  German  statesman  said  in  1866, 
when  commenting  on  a  verse  of  the  monk  of  Lehnin. 

I  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  German  Protestant, 
who  has  entered  the  fold  of  the  Catholic  Church,  on 
my  return  from  a  journey  to  Spain.  I  take  this  oppor- 
tunity to  recommend  his  book,f  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting that  could  be  read  at  the  present  time.  The  con- 
clusions of  Herr  B.  Baumstarck,  who  was  then  judge 
at  Constance,  in  the  duchy  of  Baden,  are  far  from  con- 
firming the  deductive  thesis  of  M.  de  Laveleye.  Af- 
ter drawing  a  picture  of  the  faults  committed  by  the 
rulers  of  Spain,  and  the  dangers  of  the  situation  into 
which  this  noble  country  has  been  plunged,  Herr 
Baumstarck  wrote  in  1867  : 

*  European  Civilization,  by  the  Rev.  J.  Balmes,  page  78  of 
the  American  edition,  published  by  Murphy  &  Co.,  of  Balti- 
more. 

f  It  has  been  translated  into  French  by  the  Baron  de  Lame- 
zan,  with  the  title  :  "  line  excursion  en  Espagne  par  JKeinhold 
Baumstarck"  (Paris  : Tolra,  1872).  Consult  the  pamphlet 
which  Herr  Baumstarck  has  recently  published  at  Wurtzburg, 
"Zur  Spanischen  Frage,"  p.  72. 


THE  CAUSES  OF  A  NATION'S  PBOSPEKITY.  35 

"But  there  remains  in  me  a  profound  conviction :  it 
is  that  Spain  is  approaching,  not  what  would  resemble 
decadence,  but  quite  the  country,  a  considerable 
and  glorious  development  .  .  .  Should  things 
turn  to  the  worst,  should  the  firebrand  of  civil  war  yet 
cast  its  sinister  glare  over  this  beautiful  country, 
should  the  party  of  destruction  and  negation  hold  the 
reins  of  power  for  a  time,  these  interruptions  could 
not  modify  my  opinions.  Perturbations  of  this  sort 
are  afflicting  and  cruel  to  many  private  individuals 
who  become  their  victims;  they  only  apparently  arrest 
the  rapid  progress  of  development.  The  Spanish  peo- 
ple, in  possession  of  an  enormous  capital  yet  un- 
touched, and  of  intellectual  and  moral  strength,  whilst 
adopting  whatever  good  modern  European  civilization 
really  contains,  has  known  how  to  preserve  itself 
from  most  of  the  corruptions  that  elsewhere  spring 
from  it.  This  is  why  the  future  of  this  people  must 
necessarily  be  great  and  brilliant ;  and  what  is  neces- 
sary will  happen Does  any  one  wish 

to  find  at  the  end  of  this  book  the  substance  of  the 
truths  which  I  have  brought  with  me  from  Spain,  as  a 
treasure  to  be  shared  with  my  readers  ?  Here  it  is 
concentrated  in  a  few  propositions  which  resume  its 
quintessence : 

"  1.  The  Spanish  people  are  not  in  a  state  of  decadence 
and  debasement.  Far  from  that:  they  are  busying 
themselves  about  their  intellectual  and  material  pro- 
gress with  an  energy  that  makes  us  entertain  the  most 
brilliant  hopes. 

"2.  The  solid  bases  of  this  development— if  they  wish 


36       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

to  obtain  a  lasting  prosperity — are,  and  will  be,  Cath- 
olicism and  monarchy. 

"3.  In  what  concerns  art  and  literature,  Spain  is  on  a 
level  with  any  people  or  any  country  in  the  world. 

"4.  As  to  ourselves,  the  children  of  central  Europe, 
•we  could,  for  many  reasons,  go  back  to  school  in  Spain ; 
we  would  leave  it  edified  on  more  points  than  one. " 

In  1723  the  population  of  Spain  amounted  to  7,625,000 
souls.  This  number  had  increased  in  1857  to  14,957,837; 
in  1860  it  was  15,151,677,  and  in  1868,  16,732,052.  In 
1850,  the  value  of  the  general  commerce  of  Spain 
amounted  to  1,150  million  reals.  In  1860  it  was  2,584, 
and  in  1867,  2,937  millions. 

In  taking  account  of  the  moral  civilization  of  a  nation, 
I  do  not  attach  supreme  importance  to  facts  of  this  kind; 
but,  contrasted  with  M.  de  Laveleye's  assertions,  they 
possess  an  eloquent  significance. 

Until  the  Renaissance  the  republics  of  the  Peninsula 
were  not,  politically,  inferior  to  England.  After  this 
epoch,  which  began  earlier  in  Italy  than  elsewhere,  they 
underwent,  it  is  true,  the  fatal  influence  of  the  doc- 
trines which  are  now  called  liberal,  and  of  which  Ma- 
chiavelli  was  one  of  the  theorizers.  Religious  morals 
corrected,  as  far  as  was  possible,  the  fatal  consequen- 
ces of  this  system.  When  we  see  even  Popes  favoring 
this  latter  to  a  certain  extent,  in  their  quality  of  tem- 
poral princes,  we  can  only  the  more  admire  the  divine 
edifice  of  the  Church  which  has  preserved  incorrupt- 
ible the  deposit  of  the  eternal  promises.  I  have  writ- 
ten a  book  on  the  Italian  republics  or  communes.  I 
think  I  have  shown  clearly  enough  in  it  the  causes  of 


THE  CAUSES  OF  A  NATION'S  PKOSPEKITY.  37 

the  precocious  decay  of  the  free  institutions  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  the  causes  of  the  false  direction 
•which  was  already  given  to  them  as  early  as  the  thir- 
teenth century.*  But  my  critics  have  not,  I  fear,  the 
same  tastes  as  M.  de  Laveleye.  I  will,  perhaps,  scan- 
dalize him  also  by  not  sharing  in  every  point  the  en- 
thusiasm manifested  by  his  friend,  M.  Blunt schli,  in 
the  preface  to  the  German  translation  of  his  pamphlet, 
on  the  subject  of  music  and  the  fine  arts,  in  which, 
contrary  to  the  general  thesis  of  the  Liege  professor, 
M.  Bluntschli  gives  the  palm  even  to  the  Latin  Catho- 
lic nations.  I  do  not  by  any  means  wish  to  expose  my- 
self to  ridicule  by  denying  certain  improvements  real- 
ized by  the  Renaissance,  or  to  throw  stones  at  Michael 
Angelo,  for  example,  the  architect  of  the  basilica  of  St. 
Peter's  ;  but  I  could  easily  show  that  the  great  Latin 
artists  who  find  favor,  although  Catholics,  with  liberals 
of  the  school  of  MM.  de  Laveleye  and  Bluntschli,  were 
themselves  afflicted  with  the  organic  and  mortal  malady 
of  the  Eenaissance.  If  you  wish,  we  will  give  you  a 
proof  of  this  some  other  time. 

I  am  not  an  admirer  of  the  Italian  governments  since 
the  Eenaissance.  My  ideal,  which  is  that  of  Catholics, 
is  neither  the  brilliant  dictatorship  of  the  Medicis,  tha 
clement  Liberalism  of  the  house  of  Lorraine  in  France, 
nor  the  elegant  absolutism  of  the  Bourbons  of  Naples, 
But  Italy,  on  the  whole,  compared  with  Sweden, 
Russia,  and  even  England  before  the  French  Revolu- 

*  Histoire  des  Communes  Lombardes  depuis  leur  origin* 
jusqu?  a,  la  fin  du  treizieme  siecle,  par  P.  de  Haulle  villa.  (Paris, 
Didier,  1857.) 


38        THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

tion,  without  speaking  of  half-savage  Scotland,  was 
not  materially  so  unhappy,  and  morally  it  shone  in  the 
spiritual  world  with  a  brilliancy  which  cannot  be  de- 
nied by  any  one.  Were  not  the  courts  of  Italy  super- 
ior in  literary  and  artistic  culture,  and  far  before  those 
of  Stockholm,  Copenhagen,  Potsdam  and  even  London  ? 
The  patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  the  civil  principality  of  the 
Roman  Church,  which  was  to  Europe  what  the  District 
of  Columbia  is  to  the  United  States,  the  temporal  pow- 
er of  the  Pope,  the  oldest  sovereignty  in  Europe, 
presented,  until  the  arrival  of  the  French  "  litera- 
teurs  "  of  the  end  of  the  last  century,  a  model  style 
of  self-government  :  anti-Catholic  "  civilization  "  has 
changed  all  this.  From  the  fourteenth  century  until 
the  arrival  of  the  French  revolutionists  and  "  civili- 
zers  "  the  Romagna  and  Bologna  were,  in  the  desert  of 
Europe,  oases  of  political  felicity.  The  sovereign 
Pontiff,  it  may  be  safely  said,  was  never  insulted  by 
any  one  of  his  subjects  living  there,  and  liberty  of 
worship,  in  the  sense  of  our  Liberals,  was  never 
dreamed  of ;  but  was  it  permitted  to  criticise  the  Epis- 
copal Church,  the  Margrave  (Oberbischqff),  or  the  Es- 
tablished Church  in  Sweden,  Prussia  and  England  ? 
Did  ever  the  shadow  of  religious  liberty  exist  in  these 
three  Protestant  countries  ?  You  would  not  attempt 
to  say  it  did  ;  the  only  undisputed  liberty  was  that  of 
hating  and  persecuting  the  Catholic  Chuich.  In 
Prussia  and  Sweden  religious  tyranny,  full  of  hypoc- 
risy and  brutality,  held  sway.  The  Test  Act  was 
abolished  in  England  only  forty-eight  years  ago.  It 
1  is  no  more  than  a  few  years  since  a  Catholic  priest 


THE  CAUSES  OF  A  NATION'S  PBOSPEKITT.  39 

could  not  show  himself  in  public  in  the  country  of  Lord 
Macaulay  and  Mr.  Gladstone  without  being  subjected 
to  the  punishment  of  a  criminal.  If  in  your  estimation 
"civilization"  does  not  consist  in  the  brutal  negation  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  and  if  your  principles  on  political 
liberty  are  sincere,  you  will  not  rank  the  Italy  of  the 
last  three  centuries  below  the  level  of  Protestant  na- 
tions. For  my  part,  I  could  prove  to  you  that  it  ought 
to  be  placed  higher  than  the  latter ;  but  it  is  unneces- 
sary for  me  to  give  this  proof  here. 

I  will  at  present  content  myself  with  showing  to  the 
public  the  Catholic  Spaniards  and  Italians  on  one  side, 
the  Protestants,  Prussians  as  well  as  Swedes  and  Eng- 
lish Puritans,  on  the  other,  and  I  will  ask  :  which  of 
these  two  groups,  in  its  entirety,  the  better  represents 
the  great,  noble  and  fruitful  ideas  which  are  agitating 
humanity  since  the  Passion  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  The  an- 
swer is  not  doubtful. 

I  wish  only  to  add  that  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Beforination  until  1848,  Prussia,  the  incarnation  of 
Lutheran  Protestantism,  was  the  last  of  the  "  civil- 
ized "  states,  according  to  the  ideas  held  by  M.  de  La- 
veleye,  and  that,  without  the  military  victories  of  1866 
and  1870,  the  most  part  of  his  readers  would  protest 
against  the  exaggerated  eulogies  he  passes  upon  it. 

But  let  us  proceed: 

"When  we  see  Latin  Protestants  gaining  the  advan- 
tage over  German  Catholic  communities ;  when,  in  the 
same  country,  and  in  the  same  group,  with  the  same 
language  and  a  common  origin,  it  is  shown  that  the 
Reformers  progress  more  rapidly  and  more  regularly 


4:0        THE  FUTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

than  Catholics,  it  is  difficult  not  to  attribute  the  supe- 
riority of  the  one  over  the  other  to  the  religion  they 
profess." 

The  author  is  going  to  attempt  to  demonstrate  these 
paradoxes  which  are  ever  inspired  by  his  anti-Catholic 
prejudices.  He  first  cites  Ireland  and  Scotland  : 

"  It  is  admitted  that  the  Scotch  and  Irish  are  of  the 
same  origin.  Both  have  been  subjected  to  the  Eng- 
lish. Until  the  sixteenth  century  Ireland  was  much 
more  civilized  than  Scotland.  Green  Erin  was,  during 
the  early  part  of  the  Middle  Ages,  a  centre  of  civiliza- 
tion, when  Scotland  was  only  a  resort  for  barbarians. 
Since  the  Scotch  adopted  the  Reformation  they  have 
even  outstripped  the  English.  The  climate  and  nature 
of  the  soil  are  opposed  to  Scotland's  being  as  rich  as 
England;  but  Lord  Macaulay  states  that  since  the 
seventeenth  century  the  Scotch  are  in  advance  of  the 
English  in  everything.  Ireland,  on  the  contrary,  de- 
voted to  Ultramontanism,  is  poor,  miserable,  kept  in 
agitation  by  the  spirit  of  rebellion,  and  appears  incap- 
able of  raising  itself  by  its  own  strength.  What  a  con- 
trast, even  in  Ireland,  between  extremely  Catholic 
Connaught,and  Ulster,  where  Protestantism  predomi- 
nates !  Ulster  has  become  rich  by  industry ;  Con- 
naught  presents  the  appearance  of  the  last  extremity  of 
human  misery." 

It  is  from  Lord  Macaulay  that  M.  de  Laveleye  bor- 
rows the  fundamental  idea  of  his  comparison  between 
Catholic  and  Protestant  nations.  The  English  histo- 
rian naturally  favors  the  Protestant  side ;  but  with  what 
reserve  and  with  what  equity  1  It  is  thus  that  he  as- 


THE  CAUSES  OP  A  NATION'S  PKOSPEMTY.  41 

serts,  for  example,  that  it  "is  difficult  to  say  to  which 
England  owes  most,  to  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  or 
to  the  Reformation. "  The  picture  he  draws  of  Ireland 
and  Scotland  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth (the  great  Queen  is  one  of  the  weak  points  of  this 
illustrious  man),  in  1603,  bears  no  resemblance  to  the 
portrait  given  of  her  by  the  Liege  professor.  Let  the 
reader  judge  for  himself: 

"  In  the  year  1603  the  great  Queen  died.  That  year 
is,  on  many  accounts,  one  of  the  most  important  epochs 
in  our  history.  It  was  then  that  both  Scotland  and 
Ireland  became  parts  of  the  same  empire  with  Eng- 
land. But  Scotland  and  Ireland,  indeed,  had  been 
subjugated  by  the  Plantagenets,  but  neither  country 
had  been  patient  under  the  yoke.  Scotland  had,  with 
heroic  energy,  vindicated  her  independence,  had,  from 
the  time  of  Robert  Bruce,  been  a  separate  kingdom, 
and  was  now  joined  to  the  southern  part  of  the  island  . 
in  a  manner  which  rather  gratified  than  wounded  her 
national  pride.  Ireland  had  never,  since  the  days  of 
Henry  the  Second,  been  able  to  expel  the  foreign  in- 
vaders, but  she  struggled  against  them  long  and  fierce- 
ly. During  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  the 
English  power  in  that  island  was  constantly  declining, 
and,  in  the  days  of  Henry  the  Seventh,  had  sunk  to  the 
lowest  point.  The  Irish  dominions  of  that  prince  con- 
sisted only  of  the  counties  of  Dublin  and  Louth,  of 
some  parts  of  Meath  and  Kildare,  and  of  a  few  seaports 
scattered  along  the  coast.  A  large  portion  even  of 
Leinster  was  not  yet  divided  into  counties.  Munster, 
Ulster,  and  Connaught  were  ruled  by  petty  sovereigns, 


42        THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

partly  Celts,  and  partly  degenerate  Normans,  who  had 
forgotten  their  origin  and  had  adopted  the  Celtic  lan- 
guage and  manners.  But,  during  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, the  English  power  had  made  great  progress. 
Half -savage  chieftains  who  reigned  beyond  the  pale  had 
yielded,  one  after  another,  to  the  lieutenants  of  the 
Tudors.  At  length,  a  few  weeks  before  the  death  of 
Elizabeth,  the  conquest,  which  had  been  begun  more 
than  four  hundred  years  before  by  Strongbow,  was 
completed  by  Mountjoy.  Scarcely  had  James  the  First 
mounted  the  English  throne  when  the  last  O'Donnell 
and  O'Neill  who  have  held  the  rank  of  independent 
princes,  kissed  his  hand  at  Whitehall.  Thenceforward 
his  writs  ran  and  his  judges  held  assizes  in  every  part 
of  Ireland,  and  the  English  law  superseded  the  cus- 
toms which  had  prevailed  among  the  aboriginal  tribes. 

"  In  extent  Scotland  and  Ireland  were  nearly  equal 
to  each  other,  and  were  together  nearly  equal  to  Eng- 
land, but  were  much  less  thickly  populated  than  Eng- 
land, and  were  very  far  behind  England  in  wealth  and 
civilization.  Scotland  had  been  kept  back  by  the  steril- 
ity of  her  soil :  and,  in  the  midst  of  light,  the  thick 
darkness  of  the  middle  ages  still  rested  on  Ireland. 

"  The  population  of  Scotland,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Celtic  tribes  which  were  thinly  scattered  over  the 
Hebrides  and  over  the  mountainous  parts  of  the  north- 
ern shires,  was  of  the  same  blood  with  the  population 
of  England,  and  spoke  a  tongue  which  did  not  differ 
from  the  purest  English  more  than  the  dialects  of 
Somersetshire  and  Lancashire  differed  from  each  other. 
In  Ireland,  on  the  contrary,  the  population,  with  the 


THE  CAUSES   OF  A  NATION'S  PEOSPEBITY.  43 

exception  of  the  small  English  colony  near  the  coast, 
was  Celtic,  and  still  kept  the  Celtic  speech  and  man- 
ners. 

"  In  natural  courage  and  intelligence  both  the  na- 
tions which  now  became  connected  with  England  ranked 
high.  In  perseverance,  in  self-command,  in  fore- 
thought, in  all  the  virtues  which  conduce  to  success  in 
life,  the  Scots  have  never  been  surpassed.  The  Irish, 
on  the  other  hand,  were  distinguished  by  qualities 
which  tend  to  make  men  interesting  rather  than  pros- 
perous. They  were  an  ardent  and  impetuous  race, 
easily  moved  to  tears  or  to  laughter,  to  fury  or  to  love. 
Alone  among  the  nations  of  Northern  Europe,  they 
had  the  susceptibility,  the  vivacity,  the  natural  turn 
for  acting  and  rhetoric,  which  are  indigenous  on  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  In  mental  cultiva- 
tion Scotland  had  an  indisputable  superiority.  Though 
that  kingdom  was  then  the  poorest  in  Christendom,  it 
already  vied  in  every  branch  of  learning  with  the  most 
favored  countries.  Scotsmen,  whose  dwellings  and 
whose  food  were  as  wretched  as  those  of  the  Iceland- 
ers of  our  time,  wrote  Latin  verse  with  more  than  the 
delicacy  of  Yida,  and  made  discoveries  in  science  which 
would  have  added  to  the  renown  of  Galileo.  Ireland 
could  boast  of  no  Buchanan  or  Napier.  The  genius, 
with  which  her  aboriginal  inhabitants  were  largely  en- 
dowed, showed  itself  as  yet  only  in  ballads  which,  wild 
and  rugged  as  they  were,  seemed  to  the  judging  eye  of 
Spenser  to  contain  a  portion  of  the  pure  gold  of  poetry. 

"  Scotland,  in  becoming  part  of  the  British  monarchy 
preserved  all  her  dignity.  Having,  during  many  gen- 


44        THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

erations,  courageously  withstood  the  English  arms,  she 
was  now  joined  to  her  stronger  neighbor  on  the  most 
honorable  terms.  She  gave  a  king  instead  of  receiving 
one.  She  retained  her  own  constitution  and  laws. 
Her  tribunals  and  parliaments  remained  entirely  inde- 
pendent of  the  tribunals  and  parliaments  which  sate  at 
Westminster.  The  administration  of  Scotland  was  in 
Scottish  hands ;  for  no  Englishman  had  any  motive  to 
emigrate  northward,  and  to  contend  with  the  shrewd- 
est and  most  pertinacious  of  all  races  for  what  was  to 
be  scraped  together  in  the  poorest  of  all  treasuries. 
Meanwhile  Scottish  adventurers  poured  southward,  and 
obtained  in  all  the  walks  of  life  a  prosperity  which  ex- 
cited much  envy,  but  which  was  in  general  only  the 
just  reward  of  prudence  and  industry.  Nevertheless, 
Scotland  by  no  means  escaped  the  fate  ordained  for 
every  country  which  is  connected,  but  not  incorpora- 
ted, with  another  country  of  greater  resources.  Though 
in  name  an  independent  kingdom,  she  was,  during 
more  than  a  century,  really  treated,  in  many  respects, 
as  a  subject  province. 

"  Ireland  was  undisguisedly  governed  as  a  depend- 
ency won  by  the  sword.  Her  rude  national  institutions 
had  perished.  The  English  colonists  submitted  to  the 
dictation  of  the  mother  country,  without  whose  sup- 
port they  could  not  exist,  and  indemnified  themselves 
by  trampling  on  the  people  among  whom  they  had  set- 
tled. The  parliaments  which  met  at  Dublin  could  pass 
no  law  which  had  not  previously  been  approved  by  the 
English  Privy  Council.  The  authority  of  the  English 
legislature  extended  over  Ireland.  The  executive  ad- 


THE  CAUSES  OF   A  NATION'S  PROSPERITY.  45 

ministration  was  intrusted  to  men  taken  either  from 
England  or  from  the  English  pale,  and,  in  either  case, 
regarded  as  foreigners,  and  even  as  enemies,  by  the 
Celtic  population. 

"  But  the  circumstance  which,  more  than  any  other, 
has  made  Ireland  to  differ  from  Scotland  remains  to  be 
noticed.  Scotland  was  Protestant.  In  no  part  of 
Europe  had  the  movement  of  the  popular  mind  against 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  been  so  rapid  and  violent. 
The  Reformers  had  vanquished,  deposed,  and  impris- 
oned their  idolatrous  sovereign.  They  would  not  en- 
dure even  such  a  compromise  as  had  been  effected  in 
England.  They  had  established  the  Calvinistic  doc- 
trine, discipline,  and  worship ;  and  they  made  little 
distinction  between  Popery  and  Prelacy,  between  the 
mass  and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Unfortunately 
for  Scotland,  the  prince  whom  she  sent  to  govern  a 
fairer  inheritance  had  been  so  much  annoyed  by  the 
pertinacity  with  which  her  theologians  had  asserted 
against  him  the  privileges  of  the  synod  and  the  pulpit 
that  he  hated  the  ecclesiastical  polity  to  which  she  was 
fondly  attached  as  much  as  it  was  in  his  effeminate  na- 
ture to  hate  anything,  and  had  no  sooner  mounted  the 
English  throne  than  he  began  to  show  an  intolerant 
zeal  for  the  government  and  ritual  of  the  English 
Church. 

"  The  Irish  were  the  only  people  of  Northern  Europe 
who  had  remained  true  to  the  old  religion.  This  is  to 
be  partly  ascribed  to  the  circumstance  that  they  were 
some  centuries  behind  their  neighbors  in  knowledge. 
But  other  causes  had  cooperated.  The  Reformation 


46       THB  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

had  been  a  national  as  well  as  a  moral  revolt.  It  had 
been,  not  only  an  insurrection  of  the  laity  against  the 
clergy,  but  also  an  insurrection  of  all  the  branches  of 
the  great  German  race  against  an  alien  domination.  It 
is  a  most  significant  circumstance  that  no  large  society 
of  which  the  tongue  is  not  Teutonic  has  ever  turned 
Protestant,  and  that,  wherever  a  language  derived  from 
that  of  ancient  Borne  is  spoken,  the  religion  of  modern 
Borne  to  this  day  prevails.  The  patriotism  of  the  Irish 
had  taken  a  peculiar  direction.  The  object  of  their 
animosity  was  not  Borne,  but  England  ;  and  they  had 
especial  reason  to  abhor  those  English  sovereigns  who 
had  been  the  chiefs  of  the  great  schism,  Henry  the 
Eighth  and  Elizabeth.  Durin g  the  vain  struggle  which 
two  generations  of  Milesian  princes  maintained  against 
the  Tudors,  religious  enthusiasm  and  national  enthu- 
siasm became  inseparably  blended  in  the  minds  of  the 
vanquished  race.  The  new  feud  of  Protestant  and 
Papist  inflamed  the  old  feud  of  Saxon  and  Celt.  The 
English  conquerors,  meanwhile,  neglected  all  legitimate 
means  of  conversion.  No  care  was  taken  to  provide 
the  vanquished  nation  with  instructors  capable  of  mak- 
ing themselves  understood.  No  translation  of  the 
Bible  was  put  forth  in  the  Erse  language.  The  gov- 
ernment contented  itself  with  setting  up  a  vast  hier- 
archy of  Protestant  archbishops,  bishops  and  rectors, 
who  did  nothing,  and  who,  for  doing  nothing,  were 
paid  out  of  the  spoils  of  a  Church  loved,  and  revered 
by  the  great  body  of  the  people.  "* 

*  History  of  England,   by  Lord  Macaualy  ;  vol.  I..  pa#e  18 
New  York,  1865. 


THE    CAUSES   OF   A  NATION'S   PROSPERITY.  47 

We  see  how  Lord  Macaulay  overturns  more  than  one 
of  the  barricades  that  people  have  desired  to  set  up 
against  the  Catholic  Church  by  supporting  themselves 
on  his  writings. 

M.  de  Laveleye  has,  moreover,  made  an  unfortunate 
selection  of  his  time  to  take  from  the  "Island  of  Saints" 
an  argument  in  favor  of  his  Protestant  thesis — a  few 
months  before  the  celebration  of  the  centenary  of 
O'Connell,  and  on  the  eve  of  the  publication  of  a  host 
of  pamphlets  that  brought  to  light  the  infamies  of 
which  this  heroic  people  was,  during  three  centuries, 
the  victim  under  Protestant  "civilization."  The  Ca- 
tholic Emancipation  .bill  in  England  dates  from  1829. 
O'Connell  was  the  first  Catholic  who  sat  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  he  was  the  first  Catholic  Lord  Mayor 
of  Dublin.  The  Tudors,  the  Stuarts,  Cromwell  and 
the  Puritans,  the  House  of  Orange  and  the  House  of 
Hanover,  all  those,  in  a  word,  who  have  held  power  in 
England  since  Henry  VIII.,  have  vied  with  each  other 
in  severity  and  cruelty,  I  do  not  say  in  oppressing 
Ireland  and  muzzling  its  inhabitants,  but  in  extermi- 
nating its  population.  Those  who  have  most  signally 
distinguished  themselves  in  this  work  of  Protestant 
civilization  are  Cromwell  and  his  Puritan  "  saints."  I  am 
not  going  to  re-write  this  abominable  history  after  M. 
de  Beaumont  and  the  author  of  the  beautiful  articles 
that  recently  appeared  in  the  Germania  of  Berlin.  Let 
it  suffice  for  me  to  recall  in  a  summary  manner  the  fol- 
lowing "  economical"  facts  to  those  who  may  have  for- 
gotten them :  The  Virgin  Queen  confiscated  600,000 
acres  of  land ;  James  I.,  2,000,000  acres.  The  govern- 


4:8        THE  FUTUEB  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES  t 

ment  of  this  latter  even  sent  its  officers  to  draw  up  a 
register  of  all  Ireland,  and  it  was  discovered  that  near- 
ly all  the  lands  belonged  to  the  Crown,  and  that  the 
whole  of  Connaught  should  be  confiscated.  Charles  I. 
had  this  "surveying"  operation  revised  by  Lord  Depu- 
ty Strafford,  and  the  Irish  know  with  how  much  success. 
Cromwell's  army  of  "saints"  committed  such  atrocities 
in  green  Erin  that  the  memory  of  the  maledictions  of 
his  victims  is  yet  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  Irish.  All 
the  Catholics  who  were  not  massacred,  and  who  could 
be  found,  were  shipped  off  to  America  or  shut  up  in 
Connaught.  "To  hell  or  to  Connaught!"  Such  was  the 
command  of  these  founders  of  Protestant  "civilization." 
In  the  reign  of  William  of  Orange  there  remained  to 
Irish  Catholics  only  the  tenth  part  of  the  property  of 
the  soil. 

After  the  final  fall  of  the  Stuarts,  bloody  cruelties 
ceased.  The  work  of  the  lawyers  began,  and  their  hy- 
pocrisy raised  a  monument  of  injustice  which  makes  the 
Protestant  historian  Gervinus*  burst  out  into  this  cry 
of  indignation  :  "  A  system  of  oppression  against  nature 
was  invented,  whose  plan  was  to  impoverish  and  bar- 
barize the  mass  of  the  people,  by  exterminating  either 
the  Catholic  Church  or  the  Catholic  population  itself." 
In  1663  and  1666  the  Irish  were  forbidden  to  export 
their  cattle,  because  their  agriculture  was  reviving ;  in 
1699  the  export  of  wool  was  prohibited  because  these 
wretches  were  beginning  to  compete  with  the  English, 
etc.,  etc.  No  "Papist"  could  be  a  State  officer  nor 
acquire  estated  property.  No  Papist  master  could  have 

*Geschichte  des  19ten  Jahrh.     Vol.  yii,  page  458. 


THE   CAUSES  OF   A  NATION'S   PROSPEBITY.  49 

more  than  two  apprentices,  lest  Irish  industry  might 
assume  strength  and  vigor.  It  is  a  thing  worthy 
to  be  meditated  on  by  the  fanatical  admirers  of 
the  French  Civil  Code  of  1804,  that  the  English 
government,  to  impoverish  the  Irish,  imposed  on  them 
the  obligation  of  making  an  equal  division  of  their 
property  among  their  children,  that  is  to  say,  our  pre- 
sent system  which  is  admitted  neither  in  England  nor 
in  the  United  States.  This  system,  Burke  said,  could 
only  ruin  families  of  slender  means,  "without  afford- 
ing them  any  means  of  raising  themselves  by  their  in- 
dustry and  intelligence,  being  prevented  from  preserv- 
ing any  sort  of  property."* 

As  late  as  the  reign  of  George  ITT.  Catholics  were  not 
allowed  to  erect  schools ;  it  is  only  as  yesterday  since 
the  parents  of  Daniel  O'Connell  were  obliged  to  send 
their  son  to  Liege  and  Douay  to  find  a  Catholic  school 
in  which  the  future  Liberator  of  their  country  might  be 
educated.  It  was  only  under  this  same  reign  of  George 
III.  that  the  law  was  abolished  by  virtue  of  which  an 
Irishman  was  forbidden  to  have  in  his  possession  a 
horse  worth  more  than  five  pounds  sterling.  Burke  said 
of  this  entire  code  of  Protestant  despotism :  * '  It  is  so  ad- 
mirably organized  to  oppress  the  people  and  disfigure 
human  nature  itself  in  them,  that  never  has  anything 
like  it  been  invented  by  the  most  notorious  hypocrisy." 
This  suffices  to  prove  the  sovereign  injustice  of  M.  de 
Laveleye's  judgment.  Am  I  not,  in  reality,  more  than 
justified  in  accusing  the  Liege  professor  of  allowing 

*  See  the  work  of  M.  le  Chevalier  A.  de  Moreau  d'Andoy, 
entitled  Le  Testament.  Paris.  Deutu,  1873, 


50       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

himself  to  be  inspired  by  religions  hatred,  when  I  proye 
to  what  an  extent  he  falsifies  history  to  support  his  pre- 
judices or  passionate  judgments?  Ah!  you  say  it  is  the 
Church  that  has  made  Ireland  miserable,  and  that  it  is 
Protestantism  that  has  made  England  great  and  power- 
ful. I  say  you  are  praising  the  assassin  and  insulting 
the  victim.  Listen  to  a  page  of  the  history  of  the  de- 
liverance of  the  Irish,  as  told  but  lately  by  one  of  our 
friends  in  the  Frangais  of  the  3d  of  August.  1875: 

"  In  1828,  O'Connell  thought  the  opportunity  had 
come  for  striking  a  heavy  blow.  There  was  question, 
as  we  know,  of  obtaining  the  privilege  for  Catholics  to 
sit  in  the  House  of  Commons  and  to  fill  public  offices. 
O'Connell  resolved  on  presenting  himself  to  the  electors 
of  Clare  in  order  to  force  open  the  gates  of  that  Parlia- 
ment which  were  so  obstinately  kept  shut.  It  might 
appear  at  first  sight  that  if  it  was  difficult  for 
O'Connell  to  gain  admission  into  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, nothing  ought  to  be  easier  to  him  than  to  have 
himself  chosen  by  the  electors.  Were  not  the  vast 
majority  ojE  the  Irish  Catholics  ?  Yes,  but  to  have  a 
vote,  it  was  necessary  to  pay  a  certain  rent.  Then,  all 
the  rich  folks  were  Protestants,  and  nearly  all  the 
Catholics  were  poor.  There  were  scarcely  any  Catholic 
voters  but  the  tenants  or  small  farmers  who  were  com- 
pletely at  the  mercy  of  the  Protestant  landlord.  The 
tenants  have  no  lease  :  the  caprice  of  the  landlord  or 
rather  of  his  agent — for  the  landlord  lives  almost 
invariably  in  England — suffices  to  drive  out  the  farmer. 
Expulsion,  or,  to  use  the  cant  word,  eviction,  means 
ruin.  The  tenant  receives  no  indemnity  for  the  iin- 


THE  CAUSES  OF  A  NATION'S  PROSPERITY.  61 

provements  he  has  made  :  he  got  the  land  waste  and 
had  to  build  a  house  upon  it :  on  the  day  of  the  eviction 
his  cabin  is  destroyed.  That  is  the  duty  of  the  terrible 
'  crowbar  brigade. ' 

"There  is  nothing  so  lamentable  as  the  history  of 
these  evictions.  The  Irish  peasant  has  often  shown  in 
such  circumstances  an  endurance,  the  secret  of  which 
can  only  be  found  in  his  religious  faith.  Do  you  wish 
to  have  an  example  of  it?  Two  old  creatures  brutally 
driven  from  their  cabin,  are  lamenting.  '  Ah  !'  says 
the  poor  woman,  '  here  I  am  at  seventy-four  years  of 
age,  without  a  shelter  in  the  world ;  I,  who  have  never 
done  ill  to  any  one,  and  who  have  often  given  shelter 
to  the  unfortunate.  What  have  I  done  to  deserve  all 
this?'  'Say  nothing,  my  dear/  replied  her  husband, 
'  our  Lord  suffered  more  than  that  in  His  Passion.' 

"  Evictions  of  this  kind  are  not  isolated  facts.  In 
ten  years  alone,  from  1841  to  1851, 282,000  houses  were 
destroyed  in  this  manner.  During  the  single  year 
1849,  50,000  families  were  thus  driven  out.  You  could 
not  travel  through  some  parts  of  Ireland  without  meet- 
ing at  every  step  with  these  desolate  ruins.  The  ex- 
cesses have  been  such  that  an  Englishman  and  a  Prot- 
estant, John  Bright,  could  say:  'It  is  impossible, 
while  travelling  through  these  regions ,  not  to  feel  that 
an  enormous  crime  has  been  committed  by  the  gov- 
ernment to  which  the  people  of  this  country  are  sub- 
ject.9 We  see  what  was  the  relation  of  the  Catholic 
voter  to  the  Protestant  landlord.  Every  vote  cast  for 
a  Catholic — and  there  was  no  secret  voting  then — 
brought  on  eviction  as  an  inevitable  consequence,  that 


52  THE  FUTTJBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

is  to  say,  ruin  and  sometimes  death.  So,  until  the  or- 
ganization of  the  great  Catholic  Association,  the  far- 
mer voted  invariably  according  to  the  will  of  the  land- 
lord. The  association  once  founded,  the  farmer  felt 
that  he  was  supported  and  encouraged.  His  patriot- 
ism was  aroused  and  it  inspired  him  with  veritable  acts 
of  heroism.  By  what  other  name  shall  we  call  the  con- 
duct of  that  poor  father  of  a  family  who  was  in  prison 
for  some  debt  he  owed  to  his  landlord  ?  The  latter 
went  to  see  him :  'You  are  free/  he  says,  'if  you 
only  vote  against  O'Connell.'  There  was  a  struggle 
in  the  peasant's  soul.  On  one  side  was  his  country,  on 
the  other  his  family  who  needed  him  to  work  for  their 
support.  He  accepts  the  offer  and  wends  his  way  to- 
wards the  poll  with  an  unsteady  step  and  a  clouded 
brow.  His  poor  wife,  who  is  in  the  crowd,  perceives 
him.  She  guesses  what  has  happened.  She  rushes 
towards  him,  forgetful  of  her  children  who  are  dying  of 
hunger  and  asking  her  for  bread.  'Unfortunate  man/ 
she  exclaimed,  '  what  are  you  doing  ?  Do  you  think 
on  your  soul  and  liberty  ?'  The  peasant  understands 
his  wife,  votes  for  O'CoDnell  and  goes  back  to  prison. 
"  When  O'Connell  announced  that  he  was  going  to 
present  himself  before  the  electors  of  Clare,  there  was 
great  excitement  in  Ireland.  On  both  sides  prepara- 
tions were  made  for  a  battle  which  every  one  felt  would 
be  decisive.  On  one  side  were  the  government,  the 
soldiery  and  riches  ;  on  the  other  a  multitude  in  rags, 
but  with  them  the  Catholic  clergy,  the  Association  and 
O'Connell.  The  fight  was  animated,  but  the-  Protest- 
ants soon  perceived  that  they  would  be  beaten.  All 


JHE   CAUSES  OF  A  NATION'S   PBOSPERITY.  53 

the  tenants  abandoned  their  landlords  and  voted  for 
O'Connell,  in  spite  of  all  the  threats  of  eviction.  The 
Agitator  was  elected  by  an  overwhelming  majority,  ana, 
surrounded  by  60,000  men  all  of  whom  bore  large  boughs 
of  trees  in  their  hands  as  a  sign  of  triumph,  he  entoned 
this  song  of  victory  : 

"  '  The  men  of  Clare  know  that  the  only  basis  of  lib- 
erty is  religion.  They  have  triumphed,  because  the 
voice  which  is  raised  for  fatherland  first  breathed  its 
prayer  to  the  Lord.  Songs  of  liberty  are  now  heard 
throughout  the  whole  country  ;  these  sounds  traverse 
the  valleys,  the  hills  reecho  them ;  they  murmur  in  the 
waves  of  our  rivers,  and  our  torrents,  with  their  voices 
of  thunder,  reanswer  the  echoes  of  our  mountains  : 
Ireland  is  free  I'  " 

Yes,  Ireland  has  become  free  because  it  was  indomi- 
table in  its  faith.  Let  us  hope  that  the  Irish  will  also 
remain  faithful  to  their  traditions  of  generosity.  If  the 
English  government  were  just  and  wise,  it  would  al- 
ways bear  in  mind*  the  words  by  which  the  Duke  of 
Wellington  justified  the  Emancipation  Bill  to  the 
House  of  Lords: 

"Your  lordships  know  that  at  least  half  the  troops 
which  I  commanded  by  the  grace  of  his  Majesty  in  the 
campaigns  undertaken  on  different  occasions  for  the 
security  and  independence  of  this  country,  were 

*  We  have  taken  the  liberty  of  slightly  changing  this  sentence. 
Our  author  expresses  himself  as  if  England  had  already  made 
complete  reparation  to  Ireland  for  the  injuries  of  the  past.  Un- 
fortunately, this  is  not  the  case.  If  much  has  been  done,  many 
concessions  still  remain  to  be  made,  and  it  would  be  for  the  in- 
terest of  both  countries  that  they  be  made  as  soon  as  possible. 


54       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

composed  of  Boman  Catholics.  In  reminding  yon  of  this 
fact,  I  am  persuaded  that  all  other  arguments  are  super- 
fluous. We  must  all  acknowledge  that  without  the 
blood  and  valor  of  Catholics  we  would  not  have  been 
victorious." 

But,  you  will  say,  all  that  does  not  prevent  Catholic 
Connaught  from  being  the  home  of  misery,  whilst 
Protestant  Ulster  is  enriched  by  industry.  In  the  first 
place,  this  is  not  exactly  the  case.  Connaught,  which 
has  produced  Father  Mathew,*  one  of  the  greatest 
men  of  the  present  century,  is  not  as  miserable  to-day 
as  people  affect  to  believe ;  crimes  against  property  are 
less  numerous  there  than  in  Ulster,  and  for  forty  years 
past  this  province  has  been  constantly  progressing. 
Finally,  it  has  been  proved  by  us  that  the  relatively 
greater  well-being  of  Ulster  is  the  product  of  execrable 
violence.  What  would  people  say  of  a  Pasha  who 
would  reproach  the  Sclaves  that  are  subject  to  Turkey 
with  being  poor  whilst  the  Turks  enjoy  opulence? 
What  would  you  think  of  the  judge  whe  would  re- 
proach a  man  that  was  robbed  with  the  misery  into 
which  a  robber  had  plunged  him  ?  We  will  say  more 
of  Ulster  farther  on. 

"  Since  the  Scotch  adopted  the  Reformation,"  says 
M.  de  Laveleye,  "  they  have  made  more  rapid  progress 
than  the  English."  Since  the  English  themselves  have 
been  distanced  by  the  Scotch,  it  is  not,  then,  the  Re- 
formation that  is  the  cause  of  this  progress,  unless  M. 

*The  Baron  de  Haulleville  is  mistaken  about  the  birth- 
place of  Father  Mathew,  which  is  Thomastown,  Tipperary  ;  but 
Archbishop  McHale  or  Father  Tom  Burke  will  answer  his  pur- 
pose just  as  well. 


THE  CAUSES  OF   A.  NATION'S  PROSPERITY.  55 

deLaveleye  pretends  that  the  English  are  still  too 
Catholic,  and  that  progress  is  in  direct  proportion  to 
the  distance  a  people  is  from  the  positive  bases  of 
Christianity.  The  author  should  have  also  told  us  of 
what  branch  of  the  Eeformation  he  wishes  to  speak. 
Of  all  the  countries  in  the  world,  except  perhaps  the 
United  States,  Scotland  is  in  effect  the  one  that  is  most 
divided  in  its  religious  life.  We  will  have  occasion  to 
speak  further  on  of  the  Scotch  Calvinists  and  of  the  out- 
rageous despotism  which  sectarianism  has  inflicted  on 
this  country  ever  since  the  first  breaking  out  of  the  He- 
formation.  We  will  here  content  ourselves  with  assert- 
ing that  there  is  no  religious  folly  which  has  not  found 
adherents  beyond  the  Tweed.  M.  de  Laveleye's  ideal 
cannot  consist  in  such  a  moral  anarchy.  For  I  ask 
myself  in  vain  what  relation  could  exist  between  this 
anarchy  and  the  material  prosperity  of  Scotland.  This 
prosperity  is  real.  I  have  recently  travelled  through 
this  country,  which  it  is  so  interesting  to  study,  and  I 
have  been  astonished  at  the  economical  phenomena 
which  I  have  observed  there.  I  would  have  been  more 
so  if  I  had  not  known  the  prodigious  results  obtained  by 
the  obstinate  industry  of  my  compatriots  of  the  Arden- 
nes, of  the  peasants  of  the  Campine,  and  of  the  farm 
laborers  of  some  of  the  sandy  plains  of  Flanders.  M.  de 
Laveleye,  who  has  written  such  judicious  things  about 
the  rural  economy  of  our  own  country,  ought  to  speak 
more  seriously  of  the  prosperity  of  the  Scotch.  The 
Duke  of  Sutherland  reclaims  every  year  so  many  acres 
of  fertile  land  out  of  an  ungrateful  soil,  at  the  expense 
of  capital  which  is  wonderfully  abundant  in  his  treas- 


56  THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHCXLIC  PEOPLES. 

ury.  I  do  not  by  any  means  blame  him  for  it.  But 
what  would  M.  de  Laveleye  say  if  I  ascribed  to  the  ac- 
tion of  the  Catholic  Church  the  wonders  in  agriculture 
,  accomplished  by  the  aid  of  the  money  of  the  State  in 
the  plains  of  Beverloo  and  th?  beautiful  artificial 
prairies  created  in  the  Campine  of  Limburg  by  the 
Count  de  Theux,  or  if  I  attributed  to  Belgian  Liberal- 
ism the  excellent  agricultural  operations  effected  in  the 
Campine  of  Antwerp  by  M.  Rolin-Jacquemyns  ? 

If  it  is  the  Reformation  that  has  brought  about  the 
present  prosperity  of  Scotland,  we  must  acknowledge 
that  this  result  has  come  very  slowly,  since  it  was  de- 
layed for  more  than  two  centuries.  Here  is  the  truth, 
told  by  M.  L.  de  Lavergne.* 

"Scotland  is  one  of  the  noblest  examples  we  have 
in  the  world  of  the  power  of  man  over  nature.  I  know 
of  no  country  except  Holland  which  could  compete 
with  it.  Switzerland  itself  does  not  offer  such  great 
obstacles  to  human  industry.  What  increases  the 
wonder  of  this  development  of  prosperity  on  so  poor 
a  soil  is  that  it  is  all  recent,  Scotland  has  not  the 
same  precedent  as  England.  Only  a  century  ago  it 
^vas  yet  one  of  the  poorest  and  most  barbarous  coun- 
tries in  Europe.  The  final  remains  of  its  former  pov- 
erty have  not  yet  entirely  disappeared.  But  we  can 
assert  that,  on  the  whole,  there  is  not  now  under  heav- 
en a  better  regulated  country.  Its  total  productions 
have  increased  tenfold  in  the  course  of  the  present 
century. 

*  Essai  sur  Veconomie  rurale  de  VAngleterret   de  VEcosse  et 
de  Tlrlanfa.    Paris,  Giiillemm,  1858. 


THE   CAUSES  OF   A  NATION'S  PROSPERITY.  57 

"Scotch  farmers,  so  generally  miserable  a  hundred 
years  ago,  do  not  yet  possess  as  much  capital  as  the 
English.  .  .  .  The  shires  of  Lanark  and  Eenfrew, 
which  are  the  principal  seats  of  manufacturing  and 
commercial  activity,  have  passed,  in  a  hundred  years, 
from  a  population  of  100,000  to  600,000  souls,  and  the 
single  city  of  Glasgow  from  20,000  inhabitants  to  near 
400,000.  .  .  ,  Even  the  germ  of  so  much  riches 
had  no  existence  in  1750.  It  was  English  capital, 
aided  by  laborious  and  frugal  Scotch  genius,  that  thus 
transformed  this  inert  land  in  so  short  a  time.  .  .  . 
As  long  as  Scotland  remained  isolated  from  Eng- 
land and  dependant  ^m  its  own  strength,  it  only  vege- 
tated ;  but  when  it  was  opened  to  the  capital  and  ex- 
amples of  its  powerful  neighbor,  it  at  once  rose  to  at 
least  equal  preeminence.  .  .  .  The  handsomest 
present  that  England  has  made  to  Scotland,  in  uniting 
it  to  itself,  because  it  alone  contains  all  the  others,  is 
its  constitution  and  its  political  spirit.  Scotland  was, 
until  1750,  the  stronghold  of  feudalism;  it  began  to 
open  its  eyes  only  after  the  battle  of  Culloden.  .  .  . 
At  the  end  of  the  last  century,  the  county  of 
Air,  on  the  frontiers  of  Galloway,  was  in  the  most  de- 
plorable condition,  etc." 

I  have  mentioned  the  Duke  of  Sutherland.  The 
Ipstory  of  the  recent  fortunes  of  this  great  lord  in  Scot- 
land has  been  told  by  M.  L.  de  Lavergne,  and  it  proves 
how  M.  de  Laveleye  is  blinded  by  his  anti-Catholic 
prejudices.  We  are  told  that  Scotland  owes  its  pros- 
perity to  Protestant  principles.  That  is  absolutely 
false.  Until  the  battle  of  Culloden,  in  1746,  the  chiefs 


58        THE  FUTUBB  OP  CATHOMO  PEOPLES. 

of  the  Highland  clans,  says  M.  de  Lavergne  (p.  348), 
"  dreamt  only  on  increasing  the  numbers  of  their  sol- 
diers, their  importance  being  judged,  net  by  their  rev- 
enues, but  by  the  strength  of  the  armed  bands  they 
could  equip.  When  the  agricultural  and  social  State 
of  the  Middle  Ages  had  long  ceased  to  exist  elsewhere, 
it  was  still  preserved  amid  these  retreats.  After  the 
expulsion  of  the  Stuarts  everything  was  changed." 
How  ?  It  is  interesting  to  know  that. 

The  population,  partly  Catholic  (a  portion  of  the 
Highlanders  never  ceased  to  remain  faithful  to  the 
Church  of  Eome),  was  too  dense  for  the  productive 
qualities  of  the  soil.  The  heads  of  clans  came  by  de- 
grees to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  possible  to  make 
use  of  their  mountains  only  by  depopulating  them; 
from  that  time  they  never  ceased,  at  first  by  following 
circuitous  routes,  then  openly,  and  by  violence,  to  de- 
cimate that  population  which  their  ancestors  had  mul- 
tiplied in  the  interest  of  war.  The  English  govern- 
ment adroitly  drove  them  on  to  it.  Until  the  com- 
mencement of  the  present  century,  these  measures 
were  executed  with  discretion ;  but  after  that  people 
put  themselves  to  less  trouble  ;  the  head  of  the  clan 
began  to  hunt  his  subjects — very  many  of  the  unfor- 
tunate creatures  emigrated  to  Canada ;  others  sought 
shelter  in  the  Lowlands.  On  the  ruins  of  their  cabins 
large  farm-houses  were  erected  for  the  raising  of  sheep. 
In  1808  Lord  Selkirk  publicly  explained  his  theory  of 
this  depopulation.  It  was  and  is  still  called  "  clearing 
an  estate."  It  was  the  time  when  Sir  Walter  Scott 
sung  !  The  last  heiress  of  the  great  southern  lords, 


THE  CAUSES  OF  A  NATION'S  PBOSPEBITY.  59 

the  Countess  of  Sutherland,  married,  in  1785,  George 
Granville,  Marquis  of  Stafford,  who  was  raised  in  1833 
to  the  dignity  of  Duke  of  Sutherland.  The  marchioness 
possessed  in  the  county  of  Sutherland  more  than  750,- 
000  acres,  inhabited  by  15,000  Highlanders,  from  among 
whom  the  ninety-third  regiment  of  infantry  was  re- 
cruited ;  but  her  husband  had  enormous  capital  at  his 
disposal.  They  were  both  served  by  an  intelligent 
man,  named  James  Loch,  who  knew  how  "  to  clear  an 
estate."  The  Highlanders  of  the  heiress  of  the Mhoir- 
Fhear-Chattaibh  received  orders  to  leave  their  moun- 
tains and  come  and  settle  on  the  lands  of  the  Mar- 
chioness situated  near  the  sea-shore,  as  fishermen, 
mariners  or  laborers.  Those  who  refused  to  do  so  were 
compelled  to  emigrate  to  America.  In  the  ten  years 
from  1810  to  1820,  3,000  families  were  thus  expelled 
from  the  lands  on  which  their  ancestors  had  lived. 
When  they  resisted,  her  agents  demolished  their  dwel- 
lings, and  in  some  cases,  in  order  to  do  their  work  more 
quickly  they  set  fire  to  them.  In  consequence  of  in- 
telligent operations,  and  thanks  to  the  Marquis  of 
Stafford's  capital,  118,000  Cheviots  and  13,000  black- 
faces  browsed  on  the  Sutherland  mountains  ;  415,000 
pounds  of  wool  were  sold  to  Yorkshire  owners  of  spin- 
ning factories  ;  30,000  sheep  were  slaughtered  for  the 
farmers  of  Northumberland ;  and  Mr.  Loch  became 
member  of  Parliament.  O  Walter  Scott ! 

Leaving  Connaught,  M  deLaveleye  sets  out  for  Swit- 
zerland, where  once  more  he  loses  an  opportunity  of 
showing  his  special  knowledge  in  matters  of  rural  and 
political  economy.  Blinded  by  his  prejudices,  he 


CO        THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

pretends  that  the  Latin  cantons  of  Neufchatel,  Vaud 
and  Geneva,  because  they  are  Protestant,  are  extraor- 
dinarily superior  to  the  Germanic,  but  Catholic, 
cantons  of  Lucerne,  the  Upper  Valais  and  the  forest 
cantons,  in  education,  literature,  the  fine  arts,  industry, 
wealth,  commerce  and  even — in  cleanliness. 

This  unqualified  assertion  may  alarm  those  readers 
•who  are  unacquainted  with  Switzerland  and  its  history  ; 
but  it  is  more  audacious  than  correct.  The  basin  of 
Lake  Leman  has  received  from  nature  exceptional 
fertility  and  resources  of  economy,  and  it  is  not  astonish- 
ing that  the  people  who  inhabit  these  favored  countries 
are  more  prosperous  than  the  mountain  villagers  of 
Uri,  or  those  of  the  rude  and  savage  valleys  of  Saas, 
Anniviers  and  Zermatt  in  the  Upper  Valais.  Compare 
the  Protestant  regions  of  the  canton  of  Vaud  outside 
the  basin  of  Lake  Leman,  with  the  Catholic  districts  of 
the  canton  of  Fribourg,  which  are  in  the  same  condi- 
tions of  climate  and  altitude,  and  you  will  be  convinced 
that  the  Catholics  of  Fribourg  are  nothing  behind  the 
Protestants  of  Vaud,  either  in  intellectual  culture, 
economical  production,  order  or  well-being.  The 
prosperity  of  Geneva  is  very  natural,  and  to  explain 
this  it  is  not  necessary  to  give  the  honor  of  it  to  the 
coreligionists  of  M.  Carteret.  This  city  occupies  an 
exceptional  position  on  the  banks  of  a  large  lake  fur- 
rowed by  steamboats,  surrounded  by  vineyards  and 
rich  pastures,  and  bordering  on  France.  But  lately 
Geneva  was  the  rendezvous  of  many  foreigners  who 
came  from  every  country  in  the  world  ;  the  elite  of  its 
historical  population  belongs  to  rich,  distinguished 


THE  CAUSLo   OF  A  NATION'S  PKOSPEBITT.  61 

and  emigrant  French  families.  The  fortune  of 
Neufchatel  is  due  to  its  population  of  clock- 
makers,  who  are  no  more  Protestant  than  they  are 
Catholic,  and  whose  lot  is  not  very  enviable. 
To  say  that  the  cantons  of  Geneva  and  Neufchatel  are 
more  prosperous  than  the  Upper  Valais  and  the  For- 
est cantons  because  the  latter  are  Catholic,  is  no  more 
reasonable  than  the  following  proposition  :  men  have 
not  succeeded  in  raising  cereals  on  the  sides  of  the  Mat- 
terhorn,  nor  in  planting  vines  of  Andermatt  in  Uri  be- 
cause the  soil  is  there  inhabited  by  Catholics.  M.  Mar- 
tin* cites,  with  regard  to  the  Valais,  an  "  economical  " 
fact,  which  I  submit  to  the  reflection  of  the  professors 
of  Geneva,  Berne,  and  Liege.  At  a  general  meeting 
of  all  the  conferences  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  of  Italian 
Switzerland,  at  St.  Maurice,  the  conferences  from  the 
Valais  declared  that  they  knew  not  to  what  purpose 
they  ought  to  apply  their  resources  and  their  time, 
seeing  that  they  had  no  poor  Co  attend  to  f 

On  the  authority  of  an  English  writer,  Mr.  Hep- 
worth  Dixon,  M.  de  Laveleye  goes  so  far  as  to  pretend 
that  in  the  canton  of  Appenzell,  which  is  divided  into 
two  parts  (since  1597  ;  Inner-Rhoden,  in  the  moun- 
tains, inhabited  by  11,900  Catholics  ;  and  Ausser- 
Rhoden,  in  the  plain,  peopled  by  46,726  Protestants), 
a  population  of  the  same  Germanic  race  proves  the 
same  principles  ;  the  Protestants  are  active,  indus- 
trious, sociable  and  rich  ;  the  Catholics  are  slothful, 
fond  of  routine,  ignorant,  poor,  and  live  in  huts  scat- 
tered here  and  there.  "  Every  shepherd,"  says  Mr. 

*  Avenir  du  Protestantisme  et  du  Catholicisme,  p.  197. 


62        THE  FUTUKB  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES, 

Dixon,  "  lives  in  seclusion  ;  he  meets  his  fellow-citi- 
zens only  at  mass,  at  a  boxing  match,  or  in  the  public 
house.  Every  one  knows  how  to  read  and  write,  for 
they  are  Swiss  and  are  subject  to  the  cantonal  laws  ; 
but  they  know  neither  of  books  nor  journals  ;  scarcely 
are  some  Lives  of  the  Saints,  some  popular  stories, 
some  collections  of  old  women's  cures  to  be  found, 
instead  of  fresh  and  exciting  news.19  Dr.  Schaep- 
man,  in  the  excellent  Dutch  Review,  Onze  Wachter 
(August  1875),  which  we  heartily  recommend  our 
Flemish  compatriots  to  read,  replied  to  M.  de  Savor- 
nin's  translation  by  an  article  that  reveals  a  master 
hand.  We  will  have  occasion  to  cite  it  more  than 
once.  The  Dutch  poet,  with  the  austere  good  faith  that 
is  characteristic  of  his  race,  took  the  trouble  to  study  the 
very  source  from  which  M.  de  Laveleye  has  drawn  his 
Swiss  paradoxes.  The  result  is  that  Mr.  Dixon,  in 
his  book  called  "  The  Switzers  "  is  no  more  reliable  an 
authority  than  in  his  other  writings  :  "  Free  Russia," 
4 'New  America,"  ",The  History  of  two  Queens  "etc.  The 
Saturday  Review  itself  does  not  repose  an  unreserved 
confidence  in  him. 

I  have  never  visited  the  canton  of  Appenzell ; 
but  one  of  my  Swiss  friends,  whom  I  have  con- 
sulted about  Mr.  Dixon's  assertions,  gave  me 
answer :  "  They  are  meaningless "  (I  quote  ver, 
batim);  "it  is  understood  that  a  people  having  few 
pastors,  and  living  in  almost  inaccessible  mountains,  is 
ruder  and  less  opulent  than  are  urban  multitudes  liv- 
ing in  a  plain ;  the  question  of  religion  has  nothing  iu 
common  with  the  economical  situation  of  the  canton  of 


THE  CAUSES  OF  A  NATION'S  PROSPERITY.  63 

Appenzell."  For  my  own  part,  I  assert  that  Mr.  Dixon's 
portrait,  relieved  of  its  false  pencil  ings,  charms  me. 
These  mountaineers,  known,  besides,  over  all  Switzer- 
land for  their  jovial  humor,  their  strength  of  body  and 
mind,  and  their  ancient  popular  games  (Schwingfeste), 
ought  to  produce  a  delightful  effect,  when  they  descend 
from  their  habitations,  in  their  picturesque  national 
costumes,  either  to  betake  themselves  to  mass,  or  to 
amuse  themselves  amid  the  "civilized  "  people  of  the 
plains.  Mountaineers,  shepherds  who  all  know  how  to 
read  and  write,  who  are  subscribers  to  what  are  disdain- 
fully called  "popular  sheets,"  and  who  read  the  Lives 
of  the  Saints  instead  of  taking  pleasure  in  "fresh  and  ex- 
citing novels"  like  "Timothy  Trim",  and  "Fanny 
Lear,"  for  example.  Such  mountaineers  cannot  evi- 
dently merit  the  eulogium of  the  "cultivated minds" of 
whom  M.  de  Laveleye  speaks. 


CHAPTEK    HI. 

ECONOMICAIj    COMPARISON    OF    PEOTESTANT    WITH    CATH- 
OLIC  COUNTRIES. 

What  is  meant  by  the  words  "  To  be  a  Man  of  the  Times?— The 
First  Temporal  Eule  of  Human  Societies  is,  "  Seek  first  the 
Kingdom  of  God— Sermre  Deo  regnare  est—How  a  Com 
munity  of  Savages  can  be  Relatively  Perfect— One  Thing 
only  is  Necessary  for  a  Community,  which  is  the  Service  of 
God ;  the  other  things  are  Relative  and  Contingent— It  is 
False  that  Protestant  countries  are  more  active,  industrious, 
economical  and  richer  than  Catholic  Countries— Error  of 
the  Abbe  F.  Martin  on  this  Subject— Political  Economy  and 
Catholics  in  Prussia — In  the  United  States — In  Canada — 
Protestants 'in  France — The  so-called  Economical  Conse- 
quences of  the  Edict  of  Nantes— The  Quota  of  the  Ex- 
change and  Catholic  Countries— Catholics  and  the  Book 
Trade— Catholics  and  Political  Life  in  Germany—The  Con- 
clusion to  be  drawn  from  these  Facts. 

Before  penetrating  farther  into  the  labyrinth  of  the 
deductive  school,  let  us  refer  once  more  to  the  absolute 
principles  that  predominate  in  this  discussion. 

I  have  no  disdain  for  worldly  comfort ;  I  entertain  a 
profound  admiration  for  all  the  scientific  discoveries  of 
our  age  ;  with  all  my  heart  I  associate  myself  with,  and 
in  my  humble  sphere,  I  labor  with  perseverance  in,  the 
progress  of  public  instruction ;  I  take  an  active  part  in 
the  civil  contests  of  the  forum  ;  I  appreciate  the  prac- 
tical importance  of  industry  and  commerce  ;  I  do  not 
deny  the  logic  of  the  economical  law  of  buying  and 
selling ;  I  prefer  our  railway  carriages  to  the  stage- 
coaches in  which  I  used  to  traverse  the  Ardennes  in 


ECONOMICAL  COMPABISON.  C5 

my  youth  ;  I  consider  my  perfected  fowling-piece  far 
superior  to  the  flint  and  rod  gun  of  my  grandfather's 
time ;  in  a  word,  I  am  "  a  man  of  my  time  ; "  but  I 
assert  that  M.  de  Laveleye  will  not  convince  me  that  M. 
Tiberghien  is  a  greater  philosopher  than  Aristotle ; 
that  the  pupil  of  the  latter,  Alexander  of  Macedonia, 
was  inferior  in  poli tics  to  Bismarck ;  that  Demosthenes 
was  less  talented  than  Mr.  Gladstone  ;  that  Papinian 
was  a  pedant  compared  with  M.  Bluntschli,  and  that 
M.  de  Savornin  is  far  superior  to  St.  Jerome.  The 
Protestant  sects,  and  even  the  Universal  Church  have 
only  indirect  relations  with  all  the  very  respectable 
things  which  these  great  names  recall  to  mind.  Jesus 
Christ  said  :  "  My  Kingdom  is  not  of  this  world."  His 
kingdom  is  that  of  God.  "  Seek  His  kingdom  and  His 
justice,"  adds  the  Savior  of  the  human  race,  "  and  all 
these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you."  And  Catholics 
possess  all  these  things  in  different  proportions,  and 
to  at  least  as  great  an  extent  as  Protestants.  At  a  time 
when  professors  of  political  economy  willingly  believe 
themselves  to  be  the  high  priests  of  the  future,  be- 
cause they  expound  the  laws  that  regulate  the  produc- 
tion and  circulation  of  fluctuating  riches,  and  study 
the  conditions  of  material  prosperity,  in  our  epoch, 
especially,  we  must  not  cease  to  repeat,  and  even  to 
cry  out  from  the  house-tops,  that  the  end  of  man  on 
this  earth  does  not  consist  in  the  exaltation  of  his  own 
power.  I  open  the  catechism  used  by  my  children, 
and  I  read  with  delight  these  simple  answers,  superior 
to  all  the  beauties  of  Plato's  "  Timseus "  and  the 
twelfth  book  of  Aristotle's  "  Metaphysics." 


66        THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

"Q.  What  is  man?  A.  Man  is  a  creature  of  God, 
endowed  with  reason,  possessing  an  immortal  soul  and 
a  mortal  body. 

"  Q.  What  is  the  noblest  part  of  man  ?  A.  It  is 
the  soul. 

"  Q.  For  what  end  was  man  created  by  God  ?  A. 
Man  was  created  by  God  to  serve  Him  in  HAS  life,  and 
to  possess  Him  for  ever  in  the  next. 

"  We  were  not  created,  then,  to  enjoy  "ourselves  in 
this  life  and  to  amass  wealth  ?  A.  No,  we  were  created 
to  serve  God." 

To  serve  God  is  to  reign.  Servire  Deo  regnare  est. 
He  who  serves  God  reigns  over  creation,  even  should 
he  be  the  poorest  and  most  illiterate  of  men.  The 
Christian  faith  has  not  been  preached  and  the  Univer- 
sal Church  has  not  been  founded  by  rich  capitalists, 
men  of  letters,  publicists,  professors  of  rural  economy, 
transcendent  politicians,  skilful  diplomatists,  great 
-warriors,  and  eloquent  or  shrewd  lawyers.  Jesus 
Christ,  filius  fabri,  lived  as  a  laborer  and  died  cruci- 
fied between  two  malefactors  ;  the  Apostles  were  sim- 
ple men,  workingmen,  fishers  like  the  fishermen  of 
Blankenberghe,  and  the  divine  work  of  Christianity 
was  the  greatest  scandal  to  which  the  "  learned,"  the 
"rich,"  the  "intelligent,"  and  the  "civilized"  of 
the  four  first  centuries  lent  their  aid.  It  is  the  same 
with  it  at  the  present  time.  The  existence,  vigor, 
development,  and  immutability  of  the  Catholic  Church 
is  a  scandal  for  M.  de  Laveleye,  and  all  the  incom- 
prehensible geniuses  who  share  his  superannuated 
prejudices  and  perhaps  his  recent  hate. 


ECONOMICAL  COMPARISON.  67 

M.  X.  Marmier  related  a  short  time  ago  before  the 
assembled  academies  of  France  the  history  of  the 
Home.  I  select  from  the  extensive  works  of  this 
charming  narrator  a  passage  which  I  dedicate  to  M. 
de  Laveleye.  Down  to  the  present  time  the  tertiary 
man,  who  will  be,  they  say,  in  theology,  something 
similar  to  what  the  Krupp  cannon  is  in  the  art  of  war, 
has  not  been  discovered ;  but  there  are  lacustrine  cities 
yet  in  existence,  and,  strange  to  say,  they  are  "  cleri- 
cal": 

"  In  one  of  the  most  fertile  regions  of  South  America, 
in  the  Bepublic  of  Venezuela,  a  tribe  of  Indians  con- 
struct their  cabins  in  the  middle  of  Lake  Maracaibo. 
Why?  Is  it  that  they  may  be  out  of  the  reach  of 
tigers  and  serpents,  or  of  the  invasion  of  a  hostile 
tribe  ?  No.  It  is  simply  to  rid  themselves  of  mos- 
quitoes that  are  far  more  ferocious  and  venomous  than 
those  of  our  temperate  climates.  Like  ours,  they  feel 
at  home  in  the  neighborhood*  of  water.  But  they  do 
not  go  far  from  the  humid  soil  to  which  they  owe  their 
existence,  and  the  Indians  know  that  at  a  certain  dis- 
tance from  the  shore  they  have  nothing  more  to  fear 
from  these  terrible  insects.  They  have  at  hand  all  they 
want  to  build  their  cabins:  tihepalo  di  hierro  for  their 
piles,  a  lighter  wood  for  their  boards  and  partitions, 
creeping  plants  from  which  they  make  cords  to  bind 
the  different  parts  of  their  edifice,  and  palm  leaves 
with  which  to  cover  the  roof.  For  they  know  nothing 
either  of  snow  or  cold  winds.  They  do  not  require  to 
build  massive  walls  for  the  mere  purpose  of  keeping 
out  the  rain.  Thanks  to  the  peculiar  richness  of  their 


68        THE  FUTUKE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

country,  they  have  no  more  need  to  give  themselves 
much  trouble  about  the  necessaries  of  life.  They  have 
only  to  throw  their  lines  or  nets  into  the  lake  that  sur- 
rounds them  and  they  find  as  much  excellent  fish  as 
they  want.  On  this  same  lake,  at  certain  periods,  they 
see  thousands  upon  thousands  of  ducks  beating  one 
another  to  death,  and  they  capture  a  large  quantity  of 
them  with  ingenious  snares.  On  the  shore  grows  the 
hevea,  from  which  they  extract  the  milky  juice  from 
which  caoutchouc  is  made.  Merchants  come  every 
year  to  purchase  this  commodity  as  well  as  the  down  of 
the  ducks  which  these  industrious  people  collect,  and 
the  cargoes  of  fish  which  they  have  sahed  and  smoked. 

"  Thus  the  Indians  of  Maracaibo  live  in  their  peace- 
ful home.  They  are  not  as  numerous  as  civilized  com- 
munities. They  have  neither  newspapers  nor  railways. 
They  are  unacquainted  with  the  pleasant  agitations  of 
the  trickeries  of  the  Exchange,  and  the  charms  of  par- 
liamentary discussions.  ^  But  Spanish  missionaries 
have  converted  them  to  Catholicism.  In  the  midst  of 
their  villages  rises  a  chapel,  also  built  on  piles.  The 
cross  which  surmounts  it  is  reflected  in  the  water.  Its 
bell  tolls  the  Angelus  in  this  solitude  of  the  New 
World  ;  at  the  time  of  the  offices  the  family  canoes  are 
ranged  at  the  foot  of  its  portal,  and  the  faithful  Indians 
kneel  piously  within  its  walls. 

"  When  the  Spaniards  arrived  here  the  aspect  of  the 
aquatic  habitations  of  Maracaibo  reminded  them  of 
Venice,  and  they  gave  the  country  in  which  they  found 
them  the  name  of  Venezuela.  The  opulent  Venice 
lost  its  wealth.  The  city  of  the  doges  lost  its  golden 


ECONOMICAL   COMPAKISON.  b\) 

ring.  The  queen  of  the  Adriatic  lost  her  crown.  Mar- 
vellous Venice  !  Of  old  so  many  glories  of  every  kind, 
and  so  many  disasters  in  quick  succession  ! 

"  The  little  Indian  tribe  in  Venezuela  has  not  ex- 
perienced this  brilliant  prosperity,  and  will  never  ex- 
perience this  terrible  decay.  Satisfied  with  its  lowly 
position  in  this  world,  it  dreams  neither  on  becoming 
rich  by  hazardous  speculations,  nor  on  becoming  great 
by  adventurous  conquests.  Its  high  sea  is  its  lake,  its 
light  bark  iis  JBucentaure,  its  wooden  chapel  its  bas- 
ilica of  St.  Mark,  and  its  happiness  is  to  be  looked  for 
in  the  modest  habits  of  its  daily  life." 

Certainly,  neither  you,  reader,  nor  I  will  choose 
this  lacustrine  city  for  a  summer  residence  ;  but  we 
would  not  dare  to  assert  that  these  happy  creatures 
live,  before  God,  in  a  state  of  civilization  inferior  to 
that  enjoyed  by  the  ushers  of  the  present  government 
of  Geneva,  or  the  police  agents  of  Berlin.  The  con- 
clusion I  wish  to  draw  from  this  sort  of  apologue  is 
this  :  the  deductive, doctrine  of  the  school  of  M.  de 
Laveleye  is  false  in  principle.  The  material  and  ex- 
terior development  of  a  community  depends  on  the 
nature  and  countless  accessory  circumstances  which 
vary  according  to  epoch  and  latitude.  But  one  thing 
alone  is  necessary,  everywhere  and  always,  and  that  is 
to  serve  God,  and  even  when  we  do  not  politically, 
economically,  industriously  or  literarily  succeed  in  this 
service,  we  are  none  the  less  above  all  the  things  of 
this  world.  Servire  Deo  regnare  est. 

I  am  astonished  that  M.  de  Laveleye  has  not  read 
the  beautiful  book  of  the  Abbe*  Martin,  "  De  Vavenir 


70       THE  FUTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

du  Protestantisme  etdu  Catholiciame."  He  would 
have  found  arguments  in  it  in  support  of  his  thesis.  M. 
Martin,  who  does  not  appear  to  have  studied  the 
causes  and  effects  of  the  Renaissance  sufficiently,  and 
whom  the  study  of  theology  has  kept  too  much,  per- 
haps, from  economical  researches  on  the  origin  of  the 
riches  and  poverty  of  nations,  agrees  that  Catholic 
nations  are  economically  and,  perhaps,  politically  to  a 
certain  extent,  inferior,  when  compared  with  so-called 
Protestant  nations  ;  and  he  endeavors  to  explain  or 
rather  to  attenuate  this  extraordinary  situation  by  the 
aid  of  moral  considerations  which  bear  too  close  a 
resemblance  to  consolations.  Holding  the  principles 
which  I  have  laid  down  in  all  due  reserve,  and  with- 
out denying  that  a  Catholic  community,  even  religi- 
ously perfect,  may  temporarily,  under  the  influence 
of  certain  external  circumstances,  decline  economically 
and  politically,  I  do  not  admit  the  concessions  made 
by  M.  Martin.  I  am  going  to  continue  the  proof  of  it, 
by  following  M.  de  Laveleye  step  by  step. 

"  Wherever  the  two  forms  of  worship  are  met  with 
in  the  same  country,"  M.  de  Laveleye  pretends  that 
"  Protestants  are  more  active,  industrious  and  econo- 
mical, and  consequently  richer,  than  Catholics. " 

The  end  of  life  not  being  to  amass  riches,  I  might 
simply  refer  the  author  to  Melanchton.  He  said  to 
his  mother,  who  desired  to  become  a  Protestant  :  "If 
it  is  best  to  live  a  Lutheran,  it  is  preferable  to  die  a 
Catholic."  But  let  us  take  from  M.  de  Laveleye's 
idea  whatever  truth  it  may  contain:  a  rational  econo- 
mical development  tfiat  does  not  destroy  the  spiritual 


ECONOMICAL   COMPARISON.  71 

means  which  man  ought  to  employ  to  attain  his  super- 
natural end.     In  this  point  of  view  the  thesis  of  the 
professor    of    political    economy    is    belied     by  the 
facts.     In  Prussia,  the  stronghold  of  Lutheranism,  it 
is  precisely  the  Catholic  provinces  that  are  the  richest, 
if  they  are  not  the  only  ones  that  are  rich  :  Rhenish 
Prussia,   Westphalia    and    Silesia.      The  Protestant 
provinces,    Prussia,     Pomerania    and    Brandenburg, 
which  furnish  at  the  present  time  the  strongest  con- 
tingent to  emigration,  are  the  poorest,   and  in  the 
Protestant  province  of    Prussia,   it  is  precisely  the 
Catholic  district  of  Ermland  that  is  alone  rich.     Catho- 
lic Posen,  although  possessing  a  robust  rural  class,  is, 
it  is  true,  less  prosperous   than  the  other  Catholic 
provinces.     And  why  ?    Because  it  is  yet  suffering 
from  the  economical  (and  not  religious)  errors  of  the 
government  of  the  ancient  Polish  monarchy,  and  next 
because  it  is  the  object  of  an  administrative  tyranny 
which  stifles  all  the  aspirations  of  the  people  ;  thus, 
for  example,  the  government  swore  they  would  Ger- 
manize the  Polish  people.    Instruction  is  given  in  the 
primary  schools  only  in  German  to  children  who  have 
learned  nothing  but  Polish  on  their  mother's  knee  ; 
they  are  obstinate  in  checking  with  premeditation  the 
intellectual  development  of  the  young.     The  economi- 
cal development  of  the  Posenians  is  shackled  by  the 
government  in  the  primary  schools.     After  the  annex- 
ation to  the  electorate  of    Brandenburg    of  certain 
Catholic  districts    of  Westphalia  (Bavensberg,   etc,) 
Frederic  IT.  permitted  their  inhabitants  to  settle  in 
the  Marches  which,  with  the  exception  of  the  city  of 


72       THE  FUTURE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

Berlin,  were  until  then  absolutely  forbidden  to  tliem. 
This  is  the  reason  why  very  many  Catholic  families  of 
Westphalian  origin  are  now  to  be  found  in  the 
Marches.  All  are  in  easy  circumstances  in  a  relatively 
poor  country,  and  it  is  they  who,  since  the  proclama- 
tion of  religious  liberty  in  1850,  have  served  as  the 
nucleus  of  all  the  Catholic  missions  in  these  districts. 
There  exist,  however,  particularly  in  Silesia  and  Posen 
certain  poor  Catholic  districts  ;  these  are  principally 
the  communes  where  formerly  there  were  rich  monas- 
teries, "  secularized  "  in  1810  or  after  1831.  The 
people  who  lived  around  these  ancient  Catholic  insti- 
tutions, and  who  shared  in  their  happiness  and  even 
in  their  splendor,  were  suddenly  ruined  when  the 
source  of  their  worldly  prosperity  was  dried  up,  when 
the  former  causes  of  their  industry  were  made  to 
disappear  and  those  on  whom  they  depended  for  sup- 
port were  hunted  from  the  country.  Such  ruins, 
caused  by  the  spirit  of  Protestantism,  are  not  re- 
paired in  a  few  years. 

The  truth  is,  that  in  mixed  populations  where  the  ma- 
jority are  not  violently  oppressive,  the  minority,  in 
concentrating  their  forces  and  their  energy,  generally 
distinguish  themselves  by  an  industrious  activity.  Such 
is  the  economical  cause  of  the  industry  and  commerce  of 
the  Greeks  in  the  Turkish  empire,  of  Protestants  in 
Bavaria,  Alsace,  and  the  south  of  France,  of  Catholics 
in  Holland  and  the  Marches  of  Brandenburg,  of  the 
Dalmatians  in  the  Republic  of  Venice,  of  the  Chinese 
in  the  British  possessions  of  Asia,  and  of  the  Jews  in 
every  part  of  the  world. 


ECONOMICAL    COMPARISON.  73 

M.  de  Laveleye  pretends,  after  M.  de  Tocqueville, 
that  "  in  the  United  States  most  of  the  Catholics  are 
poor;"  and  he  adds  that  in  Canada  "affairs  of  import- 
ance, industry,  commerce,  the  principal  business 
houses  in  the  cities  are  in  the  hands  of  Protestants." 
When  M.  de  Tosqueville  travelled  in  the  United 
States  (about  1830),  the  emancipation  of  the  Catholics 
from  the  yoke  of  the  Puritans  and  other  English  "lib- 
erals" was  recent,  and  the  new  immigration  of  the 
Irish,  French  and  German  Catholics  had  not  yet  pro- 
duced its  fruits.  The  illustrious  writer,  if  he  really 
expressed  this  judgment  (M.  de  Laveleye  has  not  told 
us  where  he  gets  his  quotation),  would  not  repeat  ib 
now,  seeing  that  Catholics  everywhere  hold  the  first 
rank  in  the  great  American  Republic,  not  only  in 
Louisiana,  at  Baltimore,  Boston  and  New  York,  but 
even  in  the  Western  States.  Since  De  Tocqueville  has 
been  quoted,  I  will  also  quote  him  : 

"America  is  the  most  democratic  country  in  the 
world,  and  it  is  at  the  same  time  the  country  where, 
according  to  the  most  trustworthy  accounts,  the  Catholic 
religion  is  making  the  greatest  progress.  .  .  .  Our 
kinsmen  will  tend  more  and  more  to  divide  themselves 
into  two  parties  only,  the  one  abandoning  Christianity 
altogether  and  the  other  entering  into  the  fold  of  the 
Catholic  Church. 
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

"The  American  (that  is  the  Protestant)  preachers 
incessantly  return  to  this  subject,  and  it  is  only  with 
great  difficulty  they  can  at  all  divert  their  attention 
from  it,  The  better  to  affect  their  hearers  they  are 


74:       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

showing  them  every  day  how  religious  belief  favors 
liberty  and  public  order,  and  it  is  often  difficult  to 
know,  when  hearing  them,  whether  the  chief  object  of 
religion  is  to  secure  eternal  felicity  in  the  next  world 
or  well-being  in  this  one."* 

M.  de  Laveleye  has  not  been  happy  in  calling  in  the 
assistance  of  M.  de  Tocqueville.  The  first  Catholic 
bishop  who  was  appointed  .in  the  United  States  was 
Bishop  Carroll,  in  1790.  There  are  now  seven  jarch- 
bishops  and  thirty-six  bishops  ;t  and  the  first  Ameri- 
can cardinal,  Archbishop  McCloskey  of  New  York,  has 
recently  entered  the  Sacred  College.  Catholic  works 
of  every  kind  are  being  developed  with  truly  admirable 
energy  and  abundance,  and  the  faithful  of  Louisiana, 
Missouri,  and  the  Western  States,  as  well  as  those  of 
California  and  Oregon,  rival  the  old  and  rich  Catholic 
communities  of  New  England,  in  endowing  these  in- 
numerable works  with  capital,  which  is  the  palpable 
manifestation  of  unexampled  prosperity.  Is  it  in  the 
"History  of  the  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe," 
by  Dr.  Draper,  that  M.  de  Laveleye  has  found  his 
singular  information  on  the  economical  situation  of 
American  Catholics?  The  school  to  which  our  com- 
patriot belongs  has  created  a  certain  degree  of  excite- 
ment about  this  poor  production  of  a  New  York  pro- 
fessor of  chemistry,  whose  philosophy  is  in  no  way 
superior  to  that  of  Holbach  and  Helvetius,  Chough  it 
has  been  praised  by  Professor  Tyndall.  However  this 

*  De  la  Democratic  au'A  Etats  Unis,  vol.  2,  pages  30  and  142 
(Paris :  Pagnerre,  1850.) 

f  There  are  at  present  eleven  archbishops  and  fifty-six 
ops  in  the  United  States. 


ECONOMICAL  COMPABISON.  75 

may  be,  M.  de  Laveleye's  argument  is  not  serious,  and 
we  picture  to  ourselves  the  jovial  air  with  which  it  will 
be  received  by  our  friend,  Father  flecker,  of  the  New 
York  Catholic  World. 

I  know  not  whether  the  Catholic  Canadians  are  doing 
"  great  things ; "  but  this  is  the  first  time  I  hear  of  their 
poverty.     In  the  Island  of  Newfoundland  and  Lower 
Canada,  where  the  descendants  of  the  old  French  col- 
onists constitute,  if  I  am  well  informed,  three-fourths 
of  the  population,  most  of  the  real  estate  is  in  the 
hands  of  Catholics,  who  are  generally  in  very  comfort- 
able circumstances  ;  in  Upper  Canada  the  less  numer- 
ous Catholics  are  Irish  or  other  immigrants,  who  are 
found  in   the  usual  condition  of  this  general  class  of 
colonists  in  the  English  possessions.     From  the  time 
of  the  annexation  of  the  French  colonies  of  North 
America  to  the  crown  of  England,  the  Catholics  have 
been,  if  not  oppressed,  at  least  debarred  from  the  favors 
of  the  metropolis.     It  is  remarkable,  and  it  is  right  to 
remind  M.  de  Laveleye  of  it,  that  the  Catholic  popula- 
tions of  North  America  have  alone  remained  faithful 
to  the  British  crown  since  the  end  of  the  last  century. 
This  fidelity  has  been  recompensed  in  the  present  cen- 
tury by  the  tardy  gratitude  of  England ;  and  for  the 
last  forty  years  the  Catholic  Canadians,  finally  left  to 
their  own  efforts,  have  shown  a  prodigious  activity. 
If  English  Protestants  do  "great  things,"  the  French 
and  Irish  Catholics  of  Canada  are  all  doing  good  things. 
The  enterprising  and  practical  spirit  of  the  English, 
•which  existed  before  the  birth  of  Luther,  has  manifest- 
ed itself t  it  is  true,  in  Canada  as  well  as  everywhere 


76        THE  FUTURE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES* 

else,  and  I  am  not  far  from  admitting,  -with  M.  de  La- 
yeleye,  that  in  industrial  and  commercial  speculations, 
Protestant  and  "perfidious  "  Albion  occupies  the  first 
rank  :  but,  once  more,  rich  benefices  are  not  the  stan- 
dard of  the  moral  and  political  value  of  a  man,  a  family, 
a  society  or  a  people.  According  to  the  stories  told  to 
us  by  the  Canadians  who  have  served  in  the  Pontifical 
army,  or  studied  in  the  University  of  Louvain,  I  add 
that  the  English  Protestants  in  no  way  hold  the  first 
rank  either  in  Quebec  or  Montreal,  or  even  in  St. 
John's,  Newfoundland. 

M.  de  Laveleye  may  boldly  erase  the  Canadian  Cath- 
olics from  the  list  of  the  niggards  who  know  not  how 
to  derive  legitimate  applications  from  political  econ- 
omy. If  I  were  a  Frenchman,  I  would  be  far  proud- 
er of  my  country  for  having  produced  the  brave  race 
of  Canadians  than  for  having  realized  the  "  immortal 
conquests  of  '89." 

From  Quebec  to  Nlmes  is  a  long  distance,  but 
Frenchmen  are  to  be  found  there,  not  Frenchman  afflict- 
ed with  Catholicism,  but  Frenchmen  transformed  by 
the  Eeformation.  You  naturally  expect  here  the  men- 
tion of  the  great  name  of  M.  Guizot,  a  native  of  Nimes, 
whom  we  may  cite  as  a  brilliant  example,  taken  at  haz- 
ard from  among  the  total  of  the  Protestants  of  this  oasis 
of  prosperity.  Undeceive  yourselves. 

"  M.  Audiganne,  in  his  remarkable  studies  on  'The 
Working  Classes  of  France'  remarks  the  superiority 
of  Protestants  in  industry  and  his  testimony  is  the 
less  suspicious  as  he  does  not  attribute  this  superior- 
ity to  Protestantism.  The  majority  of  the  people  of 


ECONOMICAL   COMPARISON.  77 

Nlmes,  he  says,  and  notably  those  employed  in  the 
manufacture  of  taffeta,  are  Catholics,  whilst  the  chiefs 
of  industry  and  commerce,  the  capitalists,  in  a 
•word,  belong  in  general  to  the  reformed  religion. 

"  When  any  one  family  is  divided  into  two  branches, 
the  one  adhering  to  the  faith  of  its  fathers,  the  other 
enrolling  itself  under  the  standard  of  the  new  doctrines, 
we  almost  always  remark  a  progressive  decay  on  one 
side,  and  on  the  other  increasing  riches.  ...  At 
Mazamet,  the  Elboeuf  of  the  South  of  France,  M. 
Audiganne  still  further  says,  all  the  chiefs  of  industry, 
except  one,  are  Protestants,  whilst  the  great  majority 
of  the  laborers  are  Catholics.  The  latter  are  less  edu- 
cated than  are  the  laboring  Protestant  families," 

This  mode  of  argument  is  really  extraordinary.  M. 
Audiganne  cites  economical  facts  which  can  easily  be 
explained  and  whose  law  we  have  pointed  out  already, 
and  he  is  careful  to  say  that  he  does  not  attribute  to 
religious  causes  a  state  of  things  which  is  apparently 
favorable  to  Protestants  as  such.  What  conclusion 
does  M.  de  Laveleye  draw  from  it  ?  He  audaciously 
divides  M.  Audiganne's  testimony ;  he  takes  for  his 
thesis  the  part  favorable  to  Protestants,  and  feigns  to 
forget  the  unfavorable  part.  In  supposing  that  this 
mode  of  discussion  is  admissible  in  the  domain  of  mod- 
ern logic,  what  conclusion  could  M.  de  Laveleye  draw 
from  it  ?  At  best  a  fact  interesting  to  note,  viz. :  that 
at  Nimes  and  Mazamet  capital  is  in  the  hands  of  Prot- 
estants. By  this  mode  of  reasoning  the  Kothschilds 
are  the  depositaries  of  a  civilization  far  superior  to 
that  of  the  Protestants  of  both  hemispheres ;  the  Jewish 


78       THE  FUTUBB  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

bankers  of  Berlin  and  Frankfort  are  endowed  with 
more  practical  intelligence  than  the  followers  of  Luther, 
and  Judaism  is  superior  to  Protestantism. 

I  had  hoped  that  M.  de  Laveleye,  in  presence  of  the 
scandalous  and  actual  revocation  of  the  religious  liber- 
ty of  the  Catholics  in  Switzerland  and  Prussia,  would 
spare  us  the  superannuated  citation  of  the  Revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  But  I  have  been  deceived: 

"Before  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,"  he 
says,  "  the  Reformers  were  superior  in  every  branch 
of  labor,  and  the  Catholics,  who  could  not  bear  compe- 
tition, forbade  to  them,  from  1662,  by  several  successive 
edicts,  the  practice  of  different  industries  in  which 
they  excelled.  After  their  expulsion  from  France, 
the  Protestants  brought  into  England,  Prussia,  and 
Holland  their  enterprising  and  economical  spirit ;  they 
enriched  the  district  in  which  they  settled.  It  is  to 
reformed  Latins  that  the  Germans  partly  owe  their 
progress.  The  refugees  of  the  Revocation  introduced 
different  industries  into  England,  among  others  that 
of  silk,  and  it  was  the  disciples  of  Calvin  that  civilized 
Scotland."  , 

Calvinistic  civilization  in  Scotland!  But  in  the 
whole  history  of  Christianity  we  could  not  find  a  sect 
whose  actions  have  been,  on  the  whole,  more  rude,  in- 
tolerant and  gross.  We  have  already  raised  a  corner 
of  the  veil  which"  they  wish  to  throw  over  the  former 
situation  of  Scotland ;  we  will  tear  it  all  off  hereafter. 
I  come  to  the  most  urgent  question — the  Revocation  of 
the  Edict  of  Nantes.  This  impolitic  act  of  Louis  XIV. 
was  approved  neither  by  the  cabinet  of  Madrid,  nor 


ECONOMICAL   COMPARISON.  79 

especially  by  Pope  Innocent  XL  Lord  Macaulay  and 
Kanke,  who  agree  on  this  point,  even  quote  these  re- 
markable words  which  came  from  the  Court  of  Home  : 
"Christ  never  used  such  means;  we  ought  to  lead 
men  towards  the  Church,  and  not  drag  them  to  it. "  It 
behoves,  moreover,  neither  the  fierce  Calvinists  of 
Geneva  and  Scotland,  nor  the  intolerant  German  Lu- 
therans, nor  the  tyrannical  Anglicans  to  reproach  with 
an  act  of  intolerance  King  Louis  XIV,  who  did  against 
the  Reformers  of  his  kingdom,  for  political  rather  than 
religious  reasons,  what  they  themselves  have  done  and 
are  still  doing,  through  blind  hatred  against  Catholics, 
throughout  the  whole  extent  of  Europe.  The  King  of 
Fiance  invoked  the  theological  thesis,  and  in  overturn- 
ing the  hypothesis  of  the  religious  liberty  of  the  dis- 
senters, he  was  not  proud  of  the  principles  of  the  He- 
formation  on  liberty  of  worship.  With  regard  to  the 
economical  side  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Huguenots, 
many  reflections  might  be  made.  I  will  confine  myself 
to  contesting  the  facts  cited  by  M.  de  Laveleye  by  re- 
ferring him  to  the  article  devoted  by  M.  A.  d'Avril  in 
the  Revue  des  Questions  Historiques  (vol.  xv.,  1874) 
to  the  work  of  M.  de  Segur  Dupeyron,  formerly  French 
consul  at  Antwerp,  entitled:  " Histoire  des  negotia- 
tions maritimes  et  commerciales  de  la  France  aux 
dix-septieme  et  dix-huitieme  sieeles  considerees  dans 
leurs  rapports  arec  la  politique  generate."  M.  de 
Segur  blames  the  act  of  Louis  XTV,  attributes  the 
momentary  decline  of  French  industry  during  the 
second  half  of  the  reign  of  the  "great  king"  to  the 
misfortunes  of  war,  and  denies  that  the  prosperity  ol 


80       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

other  countries  has  been  the  work  of  the  French  refu- 
gees. The  draperies  of  Friesland  date  from  the  Carlovin- 
gian  epoch ;  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century 
Amsterdam  and  Ley  den  produced  24, 000  pieces  of  cloth 
every  year ;  the  weaving  of  wool  was  introduced  into 
England  by  Flemish  workmen  two  centuries  before  the 
preachings  of  Luther ;  seventy-one  years  before  the 
Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  workmen  from  Aix-la- 
Chapelle  introduced  into  Amsterdam  new  processes  of 
manufacturing  woollen  goods;  twenty-five  years  before 
this  same  Revocation  the  fabrication  of  silk  was  already 
carried  on  in  Holland.  It  was  Dutch  and  Flemish 
workmen  who  introduced  into  Sedan  and  the  South 
the  perfected  methods  for  weaving  woollen  thread. 

It  was  towards  1521  that  Lombard  workmen  brought 
into  France  the  industry  of  silk.  From  1629  to  1681 
it  was  organized  in  England,  notably  at  London  when 
it  gave  employment  to  4000  workmen;  in  1713,  twenty - 
eight  years  after  the  Revocation,  the  number  of  these 
workmen  had  not  increased.  A  diplomatic  letter  of 
1686  establishes  that  the  industries  of  flax  and  hemp 
had  been  perfected  in  England  by  Catholic  workmen 
who  came  from  France.  In  1713  the  English  manu- 
factures were  incapable  of  sustaining  competition  with 
the  French  ;  this  fact  is  evident  from  the  petitions  ad- 
dressed to  the  Parliament  of  England  against  the 
treaty  negotiated  at  Utrecht. 

The  same  was  the  case  in  Holland.  The  author  of 
the '  'Histoire  des  re  fugles  Protestants"  says  :  ' '  The  in- 
dustry practised  by  refugees  was  less  durable  in  Holland 
than  their  brilliant  beginnings  had  led  people  to  ex- 


ECONOMICAL   COMPARISON.  81 

pect.  The  manufactures  of  silk,linencloth,liats  and  pa- 
per which  they  had  created  were  beginning  to  languish 
from  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  (that  is 
to  say,  after  the  establishment  of  peace)."  The  same 
author  adds  that  woollen  goods,  tanneries  and  sugar  re- 
fineries preserve  in  our  days  the  improvements  they 
received  at  that  epoch;  but  M.  de  Segur  denies  this  as- 
sertion, and  he  shows  that  all  the  present  perfections 
of  these  industries  are  far  posterior  to  1685.  Finally, 
this  is  the  conclusion  <.  fVie"Histoire  des  Refugies  Prot- 
estants" :  "The  manufactures  established  by  the  French 
exiles  could  not  fail  to  perish  by  degrees.  Even  the 
manufacture  of  silks  flourished  until  the  end  of  the 
War  of  the  Succession  in  Spain  (1713).  Peace  once  re- 
established, the  silks  of  France,  less  costly  and  more 
elegantly  finished,  soon  resumed  their  former  superior- 
ity over  the  markets  of  Holland."  Is  it  clear?  Is  not 
M.  de  Segur  authorized  in  concluding  thus:  "  In  pres- 
ence of  French  competition,  the  Protestant  refugees 
were  powerless,  or  nearly  so,  to  reestablish  anything 
durable  either  in  England  or  in  Holland." 

In  Prussia,  where  enormous  advantages  were  offered 
to  the  refugees,  the  industry  whose  development  they 
favored  could  support  itself  only  by  means  of  excep- 
tional and  prohibitory  laws.  Yet  we  must  attribute 
the  origin  of  this  movement  to  a  resolution  of  the  Elec- 
tor of  Brandenburg  to  withdraw  his  States  from  the 
industrial  monopoly  of  Holland  and  England.  With 
the  advantageous  conditions  which  he  offered  he  could 
attract  workmen  from  every  other  country. 

The  ancestors  of  MM.  Ancillon,  Dubois-Beymond, 


82       THE  FUTURE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

de  TEstocq,  de  Forcade,  Clairon  d'Haussonville,  Bras- 
sier de  Saint  Simon,  Chapuis,  Fournier,  etc.,  in  taking 
refuge  in  the  Electorate  of  Brandenburg,  sought  posi- 
tions in  the  ranks  of  the  clergy,  the  civil  administration 
and  the  army  rather  than  in  industry  and  commerce. 
The  manufacture  of  silk  suffered  for  a  time  in  France, 
during  the  War  of  the  Succession  in  Spain,  but  after 
the  reestablishment  of  peace  neither  England  nor  Hol- 
land could  compete  with  French  industry.  English 
and  Dutch  manufactures  had  acquired  an  extraordinary 
development.  After  the  conclusion  of  peace  this  indus- 
try fell,  outside  France,  to  its  former  level. 

I  think  that  these  few  indications  amply  suffice  to 
reduce  to  their  proper  value  the  assertions  of  M.  de 
Laveleye  on  the  economical  consequences  of  the  Kevo- 
cation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  The  following  asser- 
tions can  still  more  easily  be  disproved: 

'« Compare  the  quota  in  the  Exchange  of  the  public 
funds  of  Protestant  with  those  of  Catholic  States.  The 
difference  is  immense.  The  English  3  per  cent,  ex- 
ceeds 92 ;  the  French  3  per  cent,  floats  about  60.  The 
rentes  of.  Holland,  Prussia,  Denmark,  and  Sweden  are  at 
least  at  par ;  those  of  Austria,  Italy,  Spain,  and  Portu- 
gal are  one- third  or  even  one-half  lower." 

M.  de  Laveleye  is  not  generous  in  throwing  over- 
board Italy,  which  is  the  work  of  his  friends.  Before 
1859,  the  finances  of  the  Papal  States,  the  kingdom  of 
Naples,  Modena,  Parma,  Tuscany,  and  principally 
Piedmont  and  even  the  Lombardo- Venetian  Kingdom 
were  in  a  brilliant  situation.  Before  the  revolution  of 
1848,  which  was  not  fomented  by  Catholics,  it  is  not, 


ECONOMICAL   COMPABISON.  83 

perhaps  useless  to  repeat  it,  the  Metallics  of  Austria 
were  above  par.  As  to  the  finances  of  Holland  they  are 
no  more  Protestant  than  Catholic,  in  the  same  way  as 
the  financial  situation  of  Belgium  is  neither  the  work 
of  M.  Frere  nor  of  M.  Malou.  No  one  thinks  of  ques- 
tioning the  unheard-of  splendor  of  England's  riches. 
Babylon  was  rich ;  the  ancient  Indian  princes  of  Mexico 
possessed  riches  which  turned  the  brains  of  the  Span- 
ish conquerors ;  if  Tiberius  had  asked  for  a  loan  it 
would  have  been  contributed  a  thousand  fold ;  Both- 
schild's  grandfather  was  a  poor  devil ;  his  great  grand- 
children will  be  reduced,  perhaps,  to  moderate  circum- 
stances. Do  these  facts  prove  anything  for  or  against 
Judaism  ?  I  have  no  desire  to  interest  myself  in  M.  de 
Laveleye's  personal  affairs,  but  I  would  wager  that  he 
prefers  the  French  to  the  Prussian  rentes  as  a  specula- 
tion. When,  after  the  next  war,  the  so-called  Luth- 
eran Prussians  will  have  to  pay  perhaps  ten  milliards, 
as  the  French  Catholics  had  to  pay  five  in  1871,  we 
will  know  whether  their  appeal  will  be  heard  and 
whether  the  subscription,  when  opened,  will  be  covered 
five  times  over.  M.  de  Laveleye,  who  belongs  to  a 
family  that  is  well  versed  in  financial  matters,  has 
too  much  practical  knowledge  of  affairs  to  believe  seri- 
ously that  we  will  see  in  the  fir-tree  forests  which  sur- 
round Varzin  the  financial  prodigies  which  we  have 
witnessed  in  France  for  the  last  five  years. 

One  could  not  understand  how  M.  de  Laveleye  dared 
attempt  to  use  so  weak  an  argument,  if  he  had  not  im- 
mediately followed  it  by  an  exceedingly  naive  avowal: 

"  To-day  throughout  all  Germany  the  commerce  of  the 


84       THE  FUTUBB  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

products  of  the  mind,  books,  reviews,  maps,  journals, 
is  almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of  Jews  and  Protest- 
ants." 

M.  de  Laveleye  is  right.  Protestants  really  hold 
only  the  second  rank  in  this  turmoil  of  un-Catholic 
civilization ;  the  Jews  occupy  the  first  place  in  it,  and 
they  have  deserved  well  of  it.  But  then,  it  is  not  to- 
wards Protestantism  that  our  Liberals,  who  were  bap- 
tized Catholics  and  afterwards  disabused,  ought  to 
direct  their  hearts,  weary  of  truth  and  religion ;  it  is 
Judaism  that  attracts  them,  and  nothing  remains  for 
them  to  do  but  have  themselves  circumcised,  so  as  to 
walk  with  a  more  steady  step  towards  the  great  ideas 
of  the  future. 

The  "  commerce  of  the  productions  of  the  mind  " 
in  Germany  is  a  subject  that  ought  not  to  be  treated 
incidentally.  We  will  speak  of  it  more  at  length  than 
M.  de  Laveleye  deigns  to  do.  The  book  trade  in  Ger- 
many is  concentrated  at  Leipsic  so  effectually  that  the 
market  of  Berlin  itself  has  tried  in  vain  to  rival  the 
Leipsiger  Bucfimesse  ;  but  this  centre  of  book-selling 
is  exclusively  Protestant  or  Jewish,  so  that  Catholic 
publications  are,  so  to  say,  banished  from  it,  and 
Catholic  booksellers  have  had,  since  1848,  to  have  re- 
course to  extraordinary  or  special  means  to  forward 
the  circulation  of  their  publications.  Let  us  also  re- 
mind M.  de  Laveleye  (who  has  undoubtedly  forgotten 
it,)  that  the  "commerce  of  the  productions  of  the  mind" 
and  that  of  pharmaceutical  drugs  have  been  free  in 
the  country  of  Luther  only  since  1848.  The  absolu- 
tism of  the  Leipsic  market  is  one  of  the  accessory 


ECONOMICAL  COMPARISON.  85 

canses  of  the  philosophical  and  literary  decline  of 
modern  Germany  and  of  the  materialism  into  which 
the  book  trade  is  sinking  deeper  and  deeper  every 
day.  In  what  catalogue  of  the  North  will  you  find 
mention  made  of  the  former  Dr.  Dollingei's  "  The 
Church  and  the  Churches,"  a  formidable  work  which 
M.  de  Laveleye  ought  to  study.  From  the  central 
depot  are  excluded  not  only  Catholic  books  of  which 
large  editions  are  refused,  as  for  example,  the 
Bonifacius  Calender,  but  even  a  conspiracy  of  silence 
is  organized  against  the  most  serious  books  of  Pro- 
testant writers  who  do  not  fraternise  with  the  National- 
Liberal  party.  Herr  Wuttke,  a  Protestant  of  the  old 
school,  and  a  distinguished  professor  in  the  University 
of  Leipsic  itself,  is  in  this  situation.  One  of  his 
books,  "  Journalism  and  the  Formation  of  Public 
Opinion  in  Germany,"  has  been  pitilessly  ignored, 
not  only  in  the  so  "  enlightened  "  Germany  of  the 
North,  but  even  at  Leipsic.  This  studied  disdain  has 
not  prevented  this  work,  which  is  highly  moral  in 
tone,  from  reaching  its  third  edition  which  has  just 
appeared.  The  periodicals  devoted  especially  to  the 
German  book  trade,  loquacious  and  even  frequently 
ridicuously  prolix  as  they  are,  pass  over  Catholic  pub- 
lications in  silence,  or  mention  them  in  imperceptible 
characters  or  obscure  places.  This  tyranny  has  pro- 
voked the  publication  of  bibliographical  periodicals 
specially  destined  for  Catholics.  Among  these  I  take 
pleasure  in  mentioning  here  the  Litterarischer  Hand- 
weiser  which  Dr.  Fr.  Hulskamp  and  Dr.  H.  Rump 
of  regretted  memory,  founded  thirteen  years  ago  at 


86        THE  FUTUEE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

Miinster  in  "Westphalia.  This  monthly  catalogue, 
preceded  by  bibliographical  and  other  notices,  written 
with  a  rare  elevation  of  mind  and  style,  is  a  model  ; 
I  recommend  it  to  studious  readers.  It  is  a  veritable 
classified  encyclopedia  with  general  tables  of  the  con- 
temporary book  trade  in  America,  England,  France 
and  especially  in  Germany.  To  my  knowledge,  there 
does  not  exist  in  contemporary  literature,  besides  the 
Polybiblion  and  the  Bibliographic  Catholiquc  of 
France,  a  periodical  superior  to  the  Litterarischer 
Handweiser.  The  exclusivism  of  the  Leipsic  market 
has,  moreover,  benefited  the  Catholic  book  trade  ; 
since  1848  Germany  is  covered  with  Catholic  book- 
stores, of  which  several  now  enjoy  a  European  repu- 
tation. There  is  no  longer  a  city  of  any  importance  in 
-  the  Catholic  or  mixed  countries  which  does  not  possess 
one,  two,  or  even  three  Catholic  book-stores. 

The  intolerance  of  Protestant  and  Jewish  merchants 
has  been  imitated  by  the  authors  of  the  encyclopedias 
published  with  more  or  less  bustle  at  Leipsic,  or  else- 
where. One  of  the  latest  and  strangest  examples  of 
this  partiality  unworthy  of  science  has  been  recently 
given  by  Schelling's  son-in-law,  Herr  G.  Waitz,  in  his 
encyclopedia  of  German  historical  science.  If  the 
reader  desires  to  form  an  idea  of  the  degree  of  par- 
tiality shown  by  the  most  famous  writers  of  the  do- 
minant school,  he  will  read  with  fruit  and  even  with 
cheerfulness  the  brilliant  article  devoted  to  this  de- 
nial of  justice  in  the  learned  Mayence  review,  Der 
Kaiholik,  of  October,  1875. 

Since  the  appearance  of  M.  Wuttke's  book,  a  certain 


ECONOMICAL  COMPABISOK.  87 

amount  of  audacity  is  required  to  defend  the  anti- 
Catholic  German  press,  which  is,  so  to  say,  entirely  in 
the  hands  of  Jews,  in,  a  country  that  has  become  for- 
ever famous  for  the  "reptile  funds."  The  Catholic 
press,  daily  or  periodical,  is  inferior  in  nothing  to  the 
Jewish,  Protestant,  or  free-thinking  press.  There  is 
not  in  all  Germany  a  non-Catholic  journal  superior 
in  its  management  to  the  courageous,  erudite,  witty 
and  energetic  organ  of  the  Catholics  of  Berlin,  the  Ger- 
mania.  This  paper  has  become  a  power  at  the  gates  of 
the  chancery  of  the  empire.  Bismarck  himself  boasted 
publicly  of  the  skilful  management  of  the  Germania, 
and  did  not  constrain  himself  from  one  day  branding 
certain  editors  of  his  own  officious  journals  with  the 
epithet  of  swineheards  (sauhirteri).  If  our  liberals 
admire  the  Cologne  Gazette,  I  venture  to  say  that 
the  Kcelnisehe  Volkszeitung,  published  by  M.  Bach- 
em,  at  Cologne  also,  is  one  of  the  most  complete  journals 
to  be  found  in  Europe.  There  is  not  a  locality  of  the 
least  importance,  either  in  the  South  or  in  the  North, 
Catholic  or  mixed,  in  which  a  Catholic  journal  has 
not  been  started  since  1848,  since  there  exists  a  certain 
degree  of  liberty  of  the  press  in  the  country  of  Luther, 
while  most  of  the  German  journals,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Neue  Preusissche  Zeitung,  the  Frankfurter 
Zeitung,  and  some  other  rare  independent  papers,  are 
devoted  to  the  government,  all  the  Catholic  journals, 
to  the  number  of  about  300,  maintain  a  most  dignified 
attitude,  and  set  the  noblest  examples  of  liberty. 
Without  subsidy,  without  the  reptile  funds,  without 
support  from  "people  of  importance,"  the  Catholic  jour- 


88        THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES.   . 

nals  develop  and  prosper,  and  yet  they  are  incessantly 
prosecuted  and  even  confiscated ;  the  Germania  haa 
already  had  the  honor  of  seeing  five  of  its  editors  con- 
demned to  imprisonment  in  three  years ;  the  whole 
strength  of  the  government,  the  entire  influence  of  the 
police  and  all  the  zeal  of  the  bar  are  directed  against 
the  development  of  the  Catholic  press,  which  is  full  of 
life  and  vigor,  so  that  the  Novelles,  which  the  Prus- 
sian government  lately  proposed  to  introduce  into  the 
penal  code  appear  to  have  no  other  object  in  view  than 
to  crush  Catholic  journals  and  to  justify  once  more 
these  words  of  J.  de  Maistre  :  "  Unless  error  is  main- 
tained by  proscriptions,  it  will  never  hold  its  own  against 
truth."  There  is  not  in  all  Germany  a  periodical  re- 
view that  has  more  influence  on  public  opinion  than 
the  Historical  and  Political  Papers,  of  Munich,  the 
"yellow  book,"  conducted  with  so  much  talent  by 
Herren  Joergand  Binder,  and  establishedjwith  so  much 
brilliancy  by  Joseph  Gcerres,  the  great  Catholic  writer 
whom  Napoleon  I.  surnamed  the  "  sixth  power." 
Since  the  death  of  Gcerres,  Schlegel,  Eichendorf  and 
Grillparzer  the  Austrian,  all  Catholics,  and  H.  Heine, 
who  was  a  Jew,  mention  for  me  one  great  German 
writer.  German  literature  is  tossed  about  between  a 
certain  materialistic  originality  and  an  imitation  of  the 
defects  of  the  French  literature  of  the  present  day  : 
literary  mediocrity  is  the  fashion.  The  language  of 
Schiller,  which  Prince  Bismarck  introduced  so  prou$- 
ly  into  German  diplomacy  accredited  abroad,  is  mak- 
ing no  progress  ;  it  swarms  with  neologisms  that  are 
not  understood  by  the  people,  and  words  and  phrases 


ECONOMICAL  COMPAKISON.  89 

borrowed  from  the  English  and  French.  But  lately, 
when  the  German  Government  communicated  with  the 
Belgian  Cabinet,  three  of  us  (of  whom  two  were  Ger- 
mans) spent  a  whole  evening  in  making  out  the  mean- 
ing of  a  few  phrases,  as  if  there  was  question  of  a  satire 
of  Persius  or  an  Assyrian  inscription.  Who  are  the 
orators  in  the  Parliament  of  Berlin  ?  Herr  Lasker,  a 
Jew,  and  Bismarck,  a  sceptic  who  stammers  and  speaks 
hesitatingly,  as  some  timid  people  fire  a  revolver.  The 
Centre  contains  a  whole  group  of  orators  and  debaters 
—  Herr  Windhorst,  the  4<  pearl  of  Meppen  ;"  Herren 
P.  and  August  Eeichensperger,  the  Baron  von  Schorle- 
mer-Alst,  the  "captain"  of  the  Westphalian  peasants ; 
Canon  Moufang,  Dr.  Joerg,  one  of  the  most  satirical 
speakers  of  new  Germany,  £c. 

If  you  descend  from  this  lofty  eminence  to  the  level 
of  the  people  you  will  soon  be  convinced  that  there  is 
in  reality  no  political  life  except  among  the  German 
Catholics.  The  entire  Catholic  people  move  and  live 
with  their  priests  and  deputies.  They  alone  display 
that  political  maturity  which  inspires  energy  in  the  de- 
fence of  right,  calm  in  passive  resistance  and  persever- 
ance in  measured  and  dignified  protest.  None  but  the 
Catholics  have  made  a  loyal  use  of  the  parliamentary 
regime ;  their  adversaries  have  derived  from  this  re- 
gime only  instruments  of  power  and  oppression ;  by  a 
scandalous  abuse  of  the  right  of  majorities,  they  have 
brought  into  disrepute  the  representative  institutions 
which,  moreover,  preserved  their  roots  only  in  Catholic 
countries  whilst  they  have  been  forgotten  in  the  March- 
es of  Brandenburg  ever  since  the  sixteenth  century. 


90  THE  FTTTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

The  parliamentary  Centre  at  Berlin  has  behind  it  aa 
many  voters  as  the  three  times  more  numerous  ma- 
jority of  their  Liberal  adversaries.  In  effect,  ninety- 
nine  per  cent,  of  the  Catholic  voters  vote  at  elections, 
whilst  the  Liberals  obtain  scarcely  fifty  per  cent,  of 
the  suffrages.  The  German  Liberals  consoled  them- 
selves on  one  occasion  by  calling  the  Catholic  voters  an 
"  electoral  herd  of  cattle."  In  truth  this 
is  too  much  boasting  for  a  party  to  which  Prince 
Bismarck,  the  master  of  the  situation,  gave  one  day 
to  understand  that  his  members  were  elected  only  in 
his  name  ;  in  effect,  this  happy  statesman  really  repre- 
sents, in  his  own  person,  outside  the  Catholic  ranks, 
the  entire  political  life  of  Germany.  The  National 
Liberals  are  Bismarck's  "  electoral  herd  of  cattle."  Is 
it  necessary  to  continue  this  demonstration  still  fur- 
ther, after  the  confession  which  this  latter  and  his 
faithful  colleague,  HerrFalk,  made  when  bringing  for- 
ward their  May  Laws  ?  They  confessed  that  they  were 
powerless  to  fight  the  Catholics  whilst  they  let  the 
Church  enjoy  liberty,  and  they  appealed  to  brute  force. 
At  this  juncture,  thanks  to  the  complicity  of  power 
and  of  the  so-called  Protestants  of  the  National-Liberal 
party,  Catholics  are  pursued  like  wild  beasts,  and  in- 
numerable compliments  and  favors  are  heaped  upon 
the  lukewarm  disciples  of  Luther.  Are  the  Catholic 
Church  and  her  faithful  subjugated,  and  is  Protestant- 
ism making  progress  ?  You  do  not  believe  it  yourself  I 
No  ;  a  thousand  times  no ;  Catholics  are  not  what  you 
say  they  are,  or  what  you  desire  they  should  be.  Un- 
able to  conquer  them,  you  have  tried  to  poison  their 


ECONOMICAL  COMPAEISON.  91 

faith,  and  this  important  undertaking  having  failed, 
you  wish  to  demolish  their  Church.  It  was  M.  Thiers, 
I  think,  who  once  said,  "Those  who  feed  on  the  Catholic 
priest  die  of  it.*'  I  know  not  when  this  phenomenon  of 
political  digestion  will  manifest  itself  in  Germany.  In 
any  case,  if  the  Jews  and  Protestants  have  in  their 
hands  the  commerce  of  intellectual  works,  which  is 
partially  inexact,  Catholics  certainly  have,  so  to  say, 
the  actual  monopoly  of  the  great  spiritual  works  in 
Germany. 

"  The  Beformation,"  concludes  M.  de  Laveleye, 
"  has  communicated  to  the  countries  that  have  adopted 
it  a  vigor  of  which  history  can  scarcely  take  ac- 
count. "  He  then  pronounces  a  pompous  eulogy  on 
the  Netherlands,  Sweden,  England  and  the  United 
States,*  whose  material  victories  and  recent  prosperity 
he  contrasts  with  the  fallen  greatness  of  Spain,  the 
modern  revolutions  of  France,  and  the  recent  defeats 
of  the  House  of  Austria.  All  this  mode  of  argument  is 
a  victorious  demonstration  of  the  error  into  which  pre- 
judice plunges  M.  de  Laveleye.  If  Spain,  France  and 
Austria  have  at  certain  periods  occupied  the  foremost 
rank  in  what  we  call  the  family  of  nations,  it  is  shown 
that  the  Catholic  religion  opposes  no  obstacle  to 
a  nation's  temporal  greatness.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
Holland  and  Sweden  have  also  at  a  certain  epoch, 

*  In  the  French  edition  Prussia  and  the  following  passage 
of  the  first  edition  have  been  omitted:  "Protestant  Prussia 
conquers  two  empires,  each  twice  as  populous  as  itself,  the  first 
in  seven  weeks,  the  second  in  seven  months."  This  military  ar- 
gument is  truly  surprising  from  the  pen  of  an  economist.  In 
the  beginning  of  this  century  Prussia  was  beaten  in  a  single  day 
at  Jena.  Was  that  the  fault  of  Dr.  Luther  ? 


92       THE  FUTUBE  OF  OATHOUO  PEOPLES. 

which  exists  no  longer,  exercised  a  preponderating 
influence  in  the  political  world,  it  is  clear  that  Pro- 
testantism is  not  a  safeguard  against  decay.  How 
is  it  that  M.  de  Laveleye  has  not  seen  the  effect 
of  sujh  a  mode  of  reasoning?  He  prophesies 
also  against  the  Catholic  Church  that  in  two  cen- 
turies Asia  will  belong  to  the  schismatic  Sclaves  — 
Cesaro-popism  would  be,  therefore,  superior  even  to 
Protestantism,  since  the  Russians  would  succeed  in 
in  driving  the  English  from  Asia.  "  Two  centuries 
ago,'*  says  our  author,  "the  supremacy  belonged  with- 
out dispute  to  the  Catholic  States.  The  others  were  on- 
ly second-rate  powers.  To-day,  put  France,  Austria, 
Italy  and  South  America  on  one  side,  and  on  the  other, 
Russia,  the  German  Empire,  England  and  North 
America,  evidently  the  predomiannce  has  passed  to  the 
heretics  and  schismatics"  Such,  then,  is  the  influ- 
ence which  the  prestige  of  success  and  strength  exer- 
cises over  men  who  believe  themselves  to  be  more  clear- 
sighted. In  effect, Italy,"  a  geographical  expression," 
exists  as  a  kingdom  dear  to  the  Liberals  only  since 
1859;  until  1866,  no  one  said  that  Austria  was  inferior 
to  Prussia:  France,  to  which  M.  de  Laveleye  owes  his 
reputation,  is  disdainful  to  certain  philosophers  only 
since  1870;  the  German  Empire  dates  from  yesterday 
and  does  not  yet  enjoy  the  conditions  of  stability;  Rus- 
sia, which  preserved  its  equanimity,  amid  the  mortifi- 
cations of  its  defeats  and  powerlessness,  became,  sud- 
denly and  without  exhibiting  any  effort,  the  arbiter  be- 
tween the  powers  of  Europe.  Why?  Because  it  was  not 
Catholic?  Evidently  not,  but  because,  in  a  balance  of 


ECONOMICAL   COMPARISON.  93 

perfect  equilibrium,  two  pounds  of  powder,  whether 
manufactured  by  Protestants,  Catholics  or  Greeks, 
always  gain  the  advantage  over  one  pound.  In  other 
words,  Eussia  is  at  this  moment  the  arbiter  of  the 
balance  of  power  inEurope.  Perhaps  Austria  will  be  so 
to-morrow;  and  after  to-morrow,  Italy.  Who  knows 
but  that  the  turn  of  Spain  will  come  again,  perhaps, 
next. 

The  attempt  to  combat  the  Church  with  economical 
formulas  is  not  new.  M.  Napoleon  Roussel,  a  French 
Protestant  pastor,  had,  already  twenty  years  ago,  tried 
to  use  this  tin  armor  at  his  own  expense.  His  book, 
11  Les  Nations  Cath®liques  et  les  Nations  Protestantes 
Consider  ees  sous  le  triple  rapport  du  Bien-etre,des 
Lumieres  etde  la  Moralite"  is  already  forgotten.  But 
the  criticism  with  which  it  was  honored  by  a  witty 
sceptic,  M.  John  Lemoinne,  of  the  French  Academy, 
has  lost  none  of  its  freshness.  I  take  the  liberty  of  re- 
producing it  here  almost  entire,  from  Mgr.  de  Se'gur's 
excellent  little  book,  entitled  "  Causerie  sur  le  Prot* 
estantisme  d'aujourd'hui  :" 

"We  opened  this  book  with  the  desire  of  saying  all 
the  good  we  could  of  it,  but  with  the  best  will  in  the 
world  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  consider  it  either  as  a 
good  book  or  as  a  good  action.  The  author  .  .  .  has 
compiled  a  book  which  advocates,  to  say  the  least,  the 
crudest,  the  most  senseless,  and  the  most  desperate  ma- 
terialism. In  truth ;  if  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  has  only 
this  sort  of  morality  to  present  to  the  world;  if , Protestant 
or  Catholic,  whatever  he  may  be,  he  has  no  other  con- 
elusion  to  draw  from  history,  then  the  only  thing  men 


94       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

have  to  do  is  to  live  highly,  conduct  themselves  with  deco- 
rum and  manage  their  affairs  carefully ;  the  richest  are 
always  the  most  virtuous.  Such  reading  as  this  grieves 

the  heart. 

*  ******  * 

*'M.  Boussel  had  the  intention  of  comparing  Cath- 
olic with  Protestant  nations  under  the  threefold  rela- 
tion of  well-being,  intellect  and  morality.  In  this 
comparison,  unfortunately,  morality,  which  ought  to 
have  a  right  to  the  first  place,  occupies  only  the  last 
and  least  important ;  intellect  holds  the  second  rank, 
and,  as  in  the  title  well-being  is  prominent,  it  struts 

along  in  a  gaudy  manner. 
******  *  * 

"In  two  volumes  M.  Koussel  demonstrates,  with 
large  reinforcements  of  figures,  that  Protestants  are 
infinitely  better  off  in  this  world  than  Catholics — 
that  they  have  more  revenues,  more  industries,  more 
securities,  more  linen  and  more  boots.  Until  the  pres- 
ent moment  we  always  believed  that  at  the  last  judgment 
God  would  put  the  good  on  one  side  and  the  bad  on 
the  other;  but  in  M.  Boussel's  system  humanity  is  di- 
vided into  two  other  categories,  that  of  fat,  and  that  oi 
thin  people ;  God  will  no  longer  try  the  reins  and 
hearts,  but  the  stomachs.  If  M.  Koussel  allowed  St. 
Peter  to  guard  the  entrance  to  heaven,  he  would  cer- 
tainly give  him  instruction,  as  at  the  Tuileries,  to 
allow  no  one  to  pass  in  but  the  well-behaved  and  well 
dressed.  In  the  Protestant  theology,  a  decent 
appearance  is  tli3  one  thlug  necessary  for  salvation. 
******  *  * 


ECONOMICAL    COMPARISON.  95 

"  We  must  see  with  what  complaisance  M.  Roussel 
scores  up  the  accounts  of  all  Catholic  and  Protestant 
countries  ;  it  is  partly  a  double  entry  system  of  book- 
keeping. "On  the  ground  of  well-being,  M.  Roussel 
and  Protestantism  reign  as  masters.  They  are  the  rich- 
est. Look,  for  example,  at  the  figure  which  this  sad  and 
wretched  Ireland  presents  by  the  side  of  her  Protest- 
ant sisters  !  M.  Boussel  gives  us,  after  an  official  re- 
port, the  statistics  of  a  parish  of  four  thousand  inhabi- 
tants— all  Catholics,  he  is  careful  to  add  ;  and  these 
four  thousand  Catholics  possess  between  them  one  cart, 
one  plough,  sixteen  harrows,  eight  saddles,  two  side 
saddles,  seven  table  forks,  ninety-three  chairs,  two 
hundred  and  forty-three  stools,  twenty-seven  geese, 
three  turkeys,  two  hair  mattresses,  eight  straw  mat- 
tresses, eight  bronze  candlesticks,  three  watches,*  a 
school,  a  priest,  no  hats,  no  clocks,  no  boots,  no  tur- 
nips, no  carrots.  Let  us  stop  a  little  in  this  enumer- 
ation ;  M.  Roussel  cites  entire  pages  of  it;  and  after 
having  gone  through  with  this  kind  of  hospital  visiting, 
he  triumphantly  exclaims  :  '  Let  us  cross  the  channel, 
and  after  having  seen  Catholic  Ireland  and  its  miseries, 
contemplate  Protestant  Scotland  and  its  prosperity.' 

"Like  people  who  have  the  jaundice,  and  to  whom 
everything  appears  yellow,  M.  Roussel  goes  searching 
through  Catholicism  even  into  corners  where  one 
would  have  never  imagined  that  he  could  nestle.  He 
cites,  for  example,  the  story  of  a  pugilistic  scene  which 
occurs  in  Ireland,  the  combatants  thrashing  each  other 
soundly,  the  witnesses  refreshing  them  with  vinegar, 
and  making  them  swallow  some  whiskey,  finally  all 


96       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

the  customary  accompaniments  to  this  kind  of  exer- 
cise. But  can  you  guess  where  the  scandal  lies  ?  It 
is  that  these  Irish  fight  with  sticks  instead  of  striking 
each  other  with  the  fists,  as  the  noble  professional 
boxers  of  England  do  /  M.  Eoussel  gravely  cites  this 
fact  as  an  example  of  the  grossness  of  Irish  and  Catho- 
lic manners.  How  different  from  those  noble  Protest- 
ant boxers  and  from  those  admirable  fisticuffs  undoubt- 
edly inspired  by  faith  !  Set  two  boxers  at  it,  one 
Catholic  and  the  other  Protestant,  one  will  be  distin- 
guished from  the  other  by  the  greater  or  less  vigor  of 
his  elbows :  this  is  a  new  criterion  of  which  we  never 
dreamt  before. 

"Continuing  his  tour  of  the  world,  M.  Eonssel  sub- 
jects Catholic  and  Protestant  Switzerland  to  the  same 
pf  ocess  of  comparison.  A  traveller  comes  into  a  Cath- 
olic canton  and  his  first  remark  is :  'what  nastiness! 
what  a  yellow,  black,  and  Irvid  tinge !'  It  is  agreed 
that  all  Catholics  are  yellow.  Here  is  another  impres- 
sion of  travel;  we  quote  it :  'By  two  o'clock  we  ar- 
rived at  Fluelen  ;  this  patch  of  Catholicism  was  an- 
nounced to  us  by  four  wennish  creatures,  six  scabby 
wretches,  half  a  dozen  miserable  devils  in  rags  who 
appeared  to  have  come  out  of  the  grave  .  .  .'  We 
see  that  this  is  better  and  better;  a  little  while  ago  the 
Catholics  were  yellow,  now  they  are  all  scabby.  Let 
us  turn  our  eyes  away  from  this  sickening  spectacle 
and  hasten  to  relieve  them  by  the  sight  of  a  Protest- 
ant land.  'How  many  dales !  what  cultivation !'  ex- 
claims M.  Eoussel.  'How  much  abundance  and  in- 
dustry 1  Zurich  and  its  beautiful  environs  appear  to  me 


ECONOMICAL   COMPARISON.  97 

to  be  the  home  of  wisdom,  moderation,  comfort  and 
happiness  .  .  .  We  entered  a  cottage  where  the 
mistress  of  the  house  offered  us  milk  and  cherries,  and 
placed  on  the  table,  nine  or  ten  large  silver  spoons.' 

.  .  .  Are  you  listening  attentively  !  Ten  silver 
spoons !  What  holy  people  !  It  is  not  these  scabby 
Catholics,  these  livid  folks,  that  could  show  so  many 
of  them.  Do  you  wish  to  follow  M.  Koussel  into 
Spain !  There  once  more,  with  a  numerous  reinforce- 
ment of  quotations,  he  will  prove  to  you  that  the  roads 
are  badly  kept,  that  the  inns  are  dirty,  and  that  they 
eat  off  pewter  vessels;  he  will  then  compare  this 
land  of  Catholicism  with  that  land  of  Protestantism, 
England,  which,  in  its  turn,  is  mentioned  in  connection 
with  its  silver  services,  its  railways,  its  linens,  etc, 

"  We  do  not  confine  ourselves  to  accompanying  M. 
Boussel  through  all  his  peregrinations,  we  do  not  deny 
the  exactitude  of  his  reckonings,  and  we  leave  to  Prot- 
estantism the  benefit  of  its  plate.  But  did  M. 
Boussel,  when  he  travelled  in  Ireland,  for  example, 
uever  experience  the  least  remorse  of  conscience  ?  Has 
he  never  asked  himself  whether  Protestants  had  not 
some  hand  in  the  misery  of  this  Catholic  country  ?  If 
the  Protestants  represent  no  more  than  a  tenth  of  the 
population  of  Ireland,  with  what  right  did  they  lay 
a  heavy  hand  on  all  the  property  and  revenues  of  the 
Catholic  Church  ?  And  when  M.  Boussel,  to  prove 
that  Catholics  are  no  longer  oppressed  in  Ireland,  tells 
us  that  they  have  four  archbishops,  twenty-three 
bishops,  2,500  churches,  and  more  than  2,000  priests, 
how  is  it  that  he  does  not  express  a  little  admiration 


98        THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

for  this  nation  of  mendicants  which  finds  means  in  its 
misery  to  support  its  churches,  whilst  the  Protestant 
bishops  and  ministers  live  sumptuously  and  plentifully 
on  the  profits  of  confiscation  ?  How  is  it  that  a  minis- 
ter of  the  Gospel  is  forgetful  of  thesa  simple  words  : 

*  Amen,  I  say  to  you,  this  poor  widow  hath  cast  in 
more  than  all  they  who  have  cast  into  the  treasury. 
For  all  they  did  casfc  in  of  their  abundance  ;  but  she  of 
her  want  cast  in  all  she  had,  even  her  whole  living. ' 

"But  M.  Eoussel  has  kept  for  France  the  most  bril- 
liant, the  most  invincible  of  all  his  arguments.  Listen 
to  it :  '  Persecuted  for  centuries,  despoiled  of  their  pos- 
sessions, French  Protestants  should  be  to-day,  not  on  a 
level  with,  but  even  far  below  the  rest  of  the  nation  in 
regard  to  riches.  Is  it  so  ?  If  we  wished  to  consult 
only  public  opinion,  we  might  say  that  the  conscience 
of  the  reader  has  answered  already.' 

"  We  entreat  you  to  admire,  in  passing,  the  singular 
duty  that  conscience  performs  here ;  but  let  us  allow  the 
author  to  continue  : 

"  'But  we  desire  to  assert  nothing,  not  even  what  is 
evident,  without  basing  our  assertions  on  documents. 
Those  which  we  have  produced  on  this  subject  are  au- 
thentic and  of  the  greatest  importance/ 

"  Here  we  trembled  for  Catholicism.  What  is  going 
to  become  of  it?  Let  us  re-assure  ourselves;  it  is  a 
bag  of  crowns,  only  a  shower  of  big  pennies.  M. 
Boussel  explains  to  us  in  detail  that  he  procured  the 
amount  of  the  quota  mobilier,  paid  by  the  Protestants 
of  the  Department  of  the  Seine.  The  list  is  litho- 
graphed ;  it  is  in  his  hands,  and  on  this  basis  he 


flOONOMlCAL  COMPABISON.  99 

that  the  average  paid  by  all  the  inhabitants  of  Paris  is 
33  francs  and  4  centimes,  and  the  average  paid  by  Pro- 
testants, 87  francs  1  centime.  '  Thus,'  he  says,  *  French 
Protestants  possess  three  times  more  riches  than  their 
Boman  Catholic  fellow-countrymen.'  After  such  a  blow 
Catholicism  ought  to  surrender ;  ur  questionably  it  will 
never  get  over  the  quota  mobilier.  But  why  has  not 
M.  Eoussel,  whilst  he  was  in  the  humor  of  making  out 
accounts,  also  consulted  the  quota  paid  by  another 
portion  of  the  population,  to  whom  we  have  no  inten- 
tion of  saying  anything  hurtful,  but  who  generally  pass 
for  being  very  well  quoted — we  wish  to  speak  of  the 
Jews.  Who  knows  but  that  he  might  have  found  the 
Israelites  still  richer,  and  consequently  still  more  vir- 
tuous than  the  Protestants  ? 

"  But,  once  more,  we  do  not  wish  to  contest  M. 
BoussePs  figures,  nor  disturb  his  triumph.  We  leave 
him  to  mount  on  his  Protestant  pyramid  of  five  franc 
pieces  and  there  sing  his  Gloria  in  Excelsis.  Some- 
body has  said  :  '  Amen,  I  say  to  you  that  a  rich  man 
shall  hardly  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  And 
again  I  say  to  you:  It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  pass 
through  the  eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a  rich  man 
to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.'  We  could 
mate  some  other  quotations  which  would  be  equally 
as  good  as  those  of  M.  Boussel,  but  we  are  not  com- 
petent to  preach  a  sermon.  M.  Boussel,  perhaps, 
sincerely  believed  that  he  was  writing  a  moral  and  re- 
ligious book  ;  sectarian  bigotry  has  blinded  him,  and 
•we  regret  having  to  repeat  that  his  conclusions  are 
essentially  materialistic. " 


CHAPTEB  IV. 

CATHOLICS     AND    COLONIZATION. 

The  Pretended  Sterility  of  Catholic  Communities—What  is 
called  Colonizing — Catholics  in  the  Philip  pine  Islands — In 
China— The  British  Colonies— The  Dutch  Colonies— Catho- 
lics in  the  United  States— The  Colonies  of  the  Cat'holic 
Missionaries— Belgian  Missionary  Colonists. 

After  this  strange  conclusion,  M.  de  Laveleye  loses 
all  self-control.  He  writes : 

"  Nations  subject  to  Home  appear  to  be  afflicted  with 
sterility;  they  no  longer  colonize;  they  have  no  power 
of  expansion.  The  words  employed  by  M.  Thiers  to 
depict  their  religious  capital,  Borne,  viduitas  et  sterili- 
tast  might  be  equally  applied  to  them.  Their  past  is 
brilliant,  but  the  present  is  dark  and  the  future  dis- 
quieting." 

Viduitas  et  sterilitas  /  Is  it  really  M.  Thiers  who 
dared  to  express  himself  thus  ?  ^M.  Thiers,  a  childless 
man,  whose  whole  life  has  been  fruitful  only  in  revo- 
lutionary inspirations,  who  has  labored  for  the  ruin  of 
all  the  powers  which  have  been  contemporaneous  with 
him  in  France,  including  his  own  among  the  rest.  M. 
Thiers,  the  widower  of  two  governments  which  he  had 
espoused,  after  a  long  interval,  in  1840  and  1870,  M. 
Thiers  who,  according  to  Von  Arnim,  "crosses  rivers 
on  a  tight-rope  laid  alongside  a  first-rate  bridge," 
would  dare  to  speak  to  us  of  the  widowhood  and  bar- 
renness of  the  Borne  of  the  Popes  ?  The  Borne  of  the 
Popes  was  never  less  a  widow  and  more  fruitful  than  at 


CATHOLICS  AND  COLONIZATION.  101 

the  present  moment.  Never,  at  any  period  of  history 
have  the  eyes  of  mortals,  throughout  tbe  two  hemi- 
spheres, been  turned  with  more  love  or  more  hatred 
towards  Eome,  the  See  of  Peter,  Capitoli  immobile 
saxum.  Is  it  to  admire  the  ruins  of  the  city  of  the 
Caesars  or  to  study  the  projects  of  Garibaldi  that  mul- 
titudes of  pilgrims  set  out  every  day,  so  to  speak, 
from  every  part  of  the  world?  Leave  the  triple 
crown  out  of  the  question  if  you  will,  but  answer  this  : 
is  there  in  the  universe  another  man  who  bears  the 
mark  of  royalty  on  his  brow  in  a  more  remarkable  man- 
ner than  does  Pius  IX  ?  Is  there,  I  do  not  say  in  this 
century  alone,  but  in  the  last  six  centuries,  a  Pope 
whose  teachings,  simple  recommendations  and  entire 
pontificate  have  been  more  fruitful  ?  The  reestablish- 
ment  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy  in  Holland  and  Eng- 
land, the  organization  of  more  than  fifty  new  dioceses 
in  America,  the  foundation  of  the  great  Church  of 
the  United  States,  that  of  Australia,  that  of  Tasmania, 
etc.,  etc.,  the  colossal*work  accomplished  by  the  Con- 
gregation of  the  Propaganda  —  dare  you  call  these 
prodigies  acts  of  sterility?  Never  has  the  Spouse 
of  Christ,  the  Church,  been  more  closely  united  with 
the  Pope  ;  do  the  proclamation  of  the  dogma  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception,  the  Council  of  the  Vatican, 
the  constitution  Dei  Filius,  a  masterpiece  of  philoso- 
phy on  the  relations  of  reason  and  faith,  the  consti- 
tution Pastor  jEternus,  the  encyclicals  Mirari  voa 
and  Quanta  cura,  thrown  like  a  challenge  to  the  tri- 
umphant Liberalism  of  this  century,  and 
twenty  other  important  documents  addressed 


102       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

urbi  et  orbi  constitute  acts  of  powerlessness? 
At  what  epoch  have  schisms  and  heresies  been  less 
dangerous  to  the  unity  of  the  Universal  Church  ?  It 
is  sufficient,  in  reply,  to  consider  the  Old  Catholics  be- 
numbed in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  military  power 
now  in  the  world.  There  reigns  in  the  Catholic  Church 
so  great  an  affection  for  the  Pope,  and  the" action  of  the 
Pope  in  the  government  of  the  Universal  Church  is  so 
fruitful,  that  it  is  really  puerile  on  the  part  of  its  ad- 
versaries to  attempt  to  deny  facts  so  palpable.  I 
could  understand,  from  a  certain  point  of  view,  how  a 
sincere  adversary  might  be  a  little  frightened  at  so  om- 
inous a  situation,  but  I  do  not  really  know  how  to 
qualify  the  brutal  denial  of  a  fact  which  stares  us  in 
the  face  and  is  in  reality  invisible  only  to  the  blrid. 

Nationalities  submitted  to  Borne  no  longer  colonize . 
But,  great  God,  who,  I  ask,  still  continue  to  colonize 
outside  Catholic  peoples  ?  To  whom  do  we  owe,  so  to 
say,  all  the  colonies  that  exist  in  the  world,  if  it  is  not 
to  Catholics  ?  I  assert  that  thlre  never  was  but  one 
Church  which  knew,  and  which  still  knows,  how  to  col- 
onize, and  this  is  the  Catholic,  Apostolic  and  Koman 
Church.  I  am  sorry  to  have  to  speak  thus  to  Prof,  de 
Laveleye  whose  economical  ideas  are  going  to  be  put 
to  a  severe  test.  In  the  historical  meaning  of  the  word, 
to  colonize  a  country  is  to  confer  upon  it  the  benefits  of 
civilization.  The  Spanish  adventurers  who  turned 
America  to  profit  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  the 
Anglo-Saxon  pirates  or  traders  who,  in  the  last  and 
even  in  the  present  century,  "colonized  "  certain  coun- 
tries by  first  depopulating  them  of  their  native  inhab- 


CATHOLICS  AND   COLONIZATION.  103 

itants,  we  will  not  call  colonists.  No  one  professes 
more  respect  than  I  do  for  the  civil  virtues  of  the 
English  and  Dutch,  but  it  is  not  to  the|r  colonial  pol- 
icy that  I  will  go  to  look  for  new  motives  for  admiration. 
The  most  beautiful  colonies  known  in  the  history  of 
modern  times  down  to  the  French  Eevolution  are  due 
to  Spain,  Portugal  and  France,  acting  at  epochs  when, 
contrary  to  M.  de  Laveleye's  theory,  these  Catholic 
countries  were  precisely  more  "subject  to  Rome,"  at 
least  formally,  than  they  are  to-day  ;  but  these  colo- 
nies began  to  get  rid  of  the  influence  of  the  mother 
country  precisely  at  the  moment  when  the  latter  was 
becoming  less  "submissive  to  Borne,"  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries,  in  the  age  of  Voltaire, 
the  Encyclopaedists,  the  persecutors  of  the  Jesuits, 
Pombal,  Aranda,  Choiseul  and  Mirabeau.  I  have  not 
to  re- write  here  this  lamentable  history  ;  every  one 
knows  with  how  mu^h  skill  the  Dutch  and  English  took 
advantage  of  this  situation  to  wrest  such  flourishing 
establishments  from*  the  Catholics.  The  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  colonies  resisted  separation  from  their 
mother  country,  so  to  say,  until  the  departure  of  the 
last  Jesuit.  All  the  ancient  colonies,  in  spite  of  the 
ravages  that  the  Liberal  ideas  caused  in  them,  still  bear 
the  traces  of  the  splendor  of  the  time  when  they  were 
more  "submissive  to  Rome."  The  Catholic  Spaniards, 
Portuguese  and  French  did  not  begin  by  proscribing  the 
indigenous  inhabitants  ;  they  baptized  them,  "  elevat- 
ed "  them,  intermarried  with  them ;  in  a  word,  they 
colonized  like  Christians.  Neither  the  English,  nor 
even  the  Dutch  have  in  any  way  followed  these  exam- 


104  THE  FUTUKE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

pies.  They  built  counting  houses  and  carried  on  a 
profitable  trade.  What  am  I  saying*?  They  have 
everywhere  destroyed,  as  much  as  it  lay  in  their  power, 
the  flourishing  Christian  communities  founded,  in  the 
East  especially,  by  the  religious  Portuguese,  Spaniards 
and  French.  The  history  of  the  Christian  colonization 
realized  in  the  Indies  and  Japan  by  Sb.  Francis  Xa- 
vier,  is  morally  admirable  and  materially  ten  times 
more  astonishing  than  the  expedition  of  Alexander  of 
Macedonia.  Have  you,  then,  never  read  it?  And  were 
not  the  exploits  of  the  Franciscans  and  Jesuits  in  China, 
those  Christian  epics,  related  to  you  on  your  mother's 
knee  ?  or  have  you  never  perfumed  the  intellect  of 
your  children  with  them?  When  English  and  Dutch 
Protestants  arrived,  all  this  nascent  civilization  was 
destroyed,  to  be  replaced  by  mere  traffic ;  what  re- 
mained of  it  was  spoiled  by  the  European  Liberals,  by 
Aranda,  Pombal  and  others.  AhJ  if  you  desire  to 
make  the  apology  of  the  Catholic  Church,  attract  pub- 
lic attention  to  colonization,  to  the  missions,  to  the 
Propagation  of  the  Faith,  to  its  Annals,  to  the  Work 
for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith,  to  the  Congregation 
of  the  Propaganda  at  Home,  a  colossal,  humanitarian 
and  universal  institution  which  bears  the  stamp  of 
divinity. 

An  English  writer,  Mr.  T.  W.  M.  Marshall,  has 
written  on  this  subject  a  work,  entitled  "Christian 
Missions."  I  know  no  treatise  on  political  or  social 
economy  that  gives  more  complete  information  or  more 
luminous  instruction  on  the  true  riches  of  Christian 
nations,  or  on  the  conditions  of  civilization  among  peo- 


CATHOLICS  AND  COLONIZATION.  105 

pies  "sitting  in  the  shadow  of  death."  I  have  just 
read  over  again  in  this  excellent  book  the  paragraph 
relating  to  the  Philippine  Islands,  one  of  those  favored 
corners  of  the  world,  like  the  Tyrol,  so  much  despised 
by  M.  de  Laveleye.  In  1858  Mr.  Crawford,  formerly 
governor  of  Singapore,  made  the  following  declaration 
at  a  meeting  for  the  Protestant  missions:  "In  the 
Philippine  Islands  the  Spaniards  have  converted  to 
the  Catholic  Faith  several  millions  of  the  natives,  and 
an  immense  amelioration  in  their  social  condition  has 
been  the  consequence.'**  Sir  H.  Ellis,  a  Protestant  hos- 
tile to  Catholics,  acknowledges,  in  his  "Journal  of  an 
Embassy  to  China"  (Chapter  viii.,  page  442),  that  "great 
praise  is  due  to  the  Spaniards  for  the  establishment  of 
schools  throughout  the  entire  colony,  and  for  their  un- 
ceasing efforts  to  propagate  Christianity  by  the  best  of 
means — the  diffusion  of  Christian  instruction."  Mrs. 
Morell,  the  wife  of  an  American  captain,  expresses 
herself  thus  about  Manilla  in  her  "^Impressions  of 
Travel "  :  "  In  Manilla  there  are  more  convents 
than  in  any  other  city  in  the  world  of  equal 
population,  and  both  natives  and  foreigners  are 
unanimous  in  acknowledging  that  they  follow 
excellent  rules.  All  appear  to  be  occupied 
in  useful  work ;  idleness  is  banished  from  among  them . 
.  Born  a  Protestant,  I  believe  tbat  I  will  die  a 
Protestant,  but  henceforward  I  will  be  more  charitable 
towards  all  those  who  profess  to  love  God  and  religion, 
whatever  may  be  their  form  of  belief. "  Another  Amer- 

"The  Times  of  the  2d  of  December,  1858. 


106       THE  FUTUBE  QP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

ican  writer  addressed  tlie  following  report  to  Mr.  C.  J. 
Ingersoll :  "  The  colony  is  very  flouris^iing.  Nearly 
all  the  Tagalos  and  Horaforos  natives  have  been  con- 
verted to  the  Catholic  faith.  There  are  three  suffragan 
bishops  in  the  province ;  one  of  them,  the  Bishop  of 
New  Segovia,  in  the  Isle  of  Lugon,  wrote  to  me  in  1837 
that  his  diocese  contained  more  than  600,000  Christians. " 
Let  the  reader,  adds  Mr.  Marshall,  compare  these  re- 
sults with  the  history  of  the  Dutch  and  English  mis- 
sions in  the  Indian  archipelago.  The  influence  of  the 
clergy  in  the  Philippines,  in  spite  of  the  small  propor- 
tion of  the  Spaniards  to  the  natives,  is  attested  by  very 
many  writers.  Sir  John  Bowring,  whom  we  knew  at 
Brussells  to  be  far  from  "  clerical,"  wrote  in  1859  : 
"The  Catholic  clergy  exercise  an  influence  which 
would  appear  magical  if  it  was  not  regarded  as  divine 
by  their  partisans." 

In  his  "Kecollections  of  Manilla  and  the  Philippines," 
Mr.  Robert  MacMicking,  a  determined  Protestant, 
since  he  is  a  Scotchman,  speaks  thus,  in  1861,  of  the 
Philippine  Islands,  where  he  resided  for  several  years  : 
"  The  natives  were  not  subjected  to  Spain  by  her  war- 
riors, nor  by  her  steel-clad  knights,  but  by  the  soldiers 
of  the  cross,  by  the  priests  who  inflamed  them  with 
their  own  ardor  for  the  cause  of  Christ. "  He  acknowl- 
edges also  that  the  suppression  of  the  Jesuits,  who  were 
banished  from  the  Islands  in  1768,  had  the  most  disas- 
trous effects  on  commerce  and  agriculture.  "The 
Church," he  adds,  "has  proved  for  a  long  time  that  it 
v  as  the  least  expensive  and  the  most  efficacious  instru- 
ment of  order  and  good  government  at  the  same  time ; 


CATHOLICS  AND   COLONIZATION.  107 

that  it  taught  the  people  to  read  at  least  their  prayer- 
books  and  other  manuals  of  piety.  There  are  very  few 
Indians  who  know  not  how  to  read,  and  I  remarked  that 
the  inhabitants  of  Manilla  serving  on  board  of  vessels 
and  making  up  their  equipage  are  much  more  frequent- 
ly capable  of  signing  their  names  than  the  English  ma- 
riners in  the  Philippines. "  There  are  very  few  Indians 
who  know  not  how  to  read.  And  this  result  has  been 
obtained  in  a  magically  clerical  country,  as  Sir  John 
Bowring  would  say,  in  a  country  that  has  become  Span- 
ish, without  any  liberal  association,  education  league, 
or  the  panacea  of  the  "gratuitous-lay-obligatory"  in- 
struction, fitrange,  very  strange.  Mr.  MacMicking 
concludes  his  report  with  this  appreciation  of  the 
present  Spanish  missionaries: 

"These  generous  men  have  penetrated  where  the 
soldiers  dared  not  enter  with  arms  in  their  hands,  and 
it  is  true  to  say  that  the  sword  has  given,  way  to  the 
gown,  with  the  best  consequences,  in  submitting  these 
savage  Indians  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  by  intro- 
ducing the  arts  and  civilization  among  them.  Hun- 
dreds, I  will  say  even  thousands,  of  these  savages,  are 
now  peaceful  cultivators,  having  learned  from  these 
good  Fathers  how  to  till  the  soil,  instead  of  living,  as 
they  had  done  previously,  on  the  products  of  the  chase, 
and  in  perpetual  hostility  with  one  another."* 
•  "  The  nations  subject  to  Rome  appear  to  be  afflicted 
with  sterility;  they  no  longer  colonize."  Here,  says 

*  Christian  Missions,  by  T.  W.  M.  Marshall.  See  also,  in  the 
JRevue  Generate  for  1874,  vol.  19  page  331,  a  very  interesting 
article  by  M.  J.  de  Petit,  entitled,  "  Souvenirs  ties  lies  Philip- 
pines. 


108      THE  FUTUBB  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

M.  de  Laveleye,  is  an  example  of  it  taken  at  hazard : 
"  The  Count  de  Beauvoir  arrives  at  Canton ;  he  there 
sees  an  islet,  Sha-Myen,  situated  in  the  middle  of  the 
river,  and  ceded  to  France  and  England.  The  traveler 
is  struck  with  the  contrast  which  the  part  ceded  to 
England  bears  with  that  which  belongs  to  France.  In 
six  years  (1867)  there  are  already  a  little  English  vil- 
lage, a  Protestant  church,  a  cricket  ground,  a  race 
course,  spacious  villas,  and  magnificent  godowna  for 
the  great  theiferous  houses  of  China.  A  roadway  sep- 
erates  the  British  from  the  French  territory.  On  ours 
there  are  clumps  of  uncared  trees,  nuisances,  wander- 
ing dogs,  cats,  moles,  but  not  a  single  house."* 

This  example,  taken  at  hazard,  is  very  unhappily 
chosen.  I  suppose  that  M.  de  Laveleye  does  not  con- 
sider as  colonizers  the  English  merchants  who  go  to 
Canton  to  try  and  carry  on  a  profitable  business.  If 
the  cricke.t-ground,  whose  description  delights  him, 
belongs  to  Protestant  missionaries,  we  must  confess 
that  he  might  find  a  fitter  object  for  his  admiration  ; 
for  French  Catholic  missionaries  have  something  else 
to  do  in  China  besides  playing  cricket  on  the  sea-shore; 
they  penetrate  into  the  interior  to  become  martyrs 
after  having  preached  the  Christian  faith  and  "  colon- 
ized "  China.  Herr  Schaepman  has,  moreover,  already 
refuted  this  whim  of  M.  de  Beauvoir,  by  citing  another 
passage  from  the  book  of  this  Catholic  gentleman,  the 
travelling  companion  of  the  Duo  de  Penthievre,  a  des- 
cendant of  St.  Louis : 

*  Voyage  autour  du  Monde,  vol.  2,  p.  427, 


CATHOLICS  AND   COLONIZATION.  109 

"If  I  am  afflicted  since  leaving  Singapore  at  seeing 
how  poor  French  commerce  is  in  the  extreme  East, 
and  how  the  tricolor  appears  but  as  a  rara  avis  in 
terris,  the  general  impression  made  on  me  bears  at 
present  less  the  character  of  despair  and  more  that  of 
consolation.  Yes,  it  is  true  ;  England,  the  queen  of 
the  seas,  is  material  mistress  of  the  Asiatic  empires  by 
her  colossal  commerce;  she  imports  into  them  her  bales 
of  cotton,  and  exports  teas  and  silks  for  the  million  ; 
but  France  is  the  country  of  ideas,  and  she  brings  them 
even  into  the  most  unknown  regions  of  China.  Let 
us  help  on  as  much  as  we  can  this  moral  force,  vivify- 
ing and  inexhaustible,  exalted  by  the  purity  and  pov- 
erty of  its  agents,  illustrated  by  martyrs  and  corrobo- 
rated by  faith  !  "* 

One  is  also  quite  naturally  induced  by  this  little  in- 
cident, which  is  not  wanting  in  interest,  to  open  the 
recent  book  of  a  statesman,  very  well  known  in  Europr, 
the  Baron  von  Httbner,  formerly  Austrian  ambassador 
at  Paris.  One  of  our  friends  has  spoken  of  this  work 
of  Von  Hiibner,  as  it  deserved,  in  explaining  for  what 
motives  the  opinion  of  the  author  had  so  much  au- 
thority in  this  matter.  Baron  von  Hiibner  begins  by 
affirming  that  a  nation  can  be  great  without  having  the 
vocation  of  colonizing  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word ; 
then  he  says : 

"Besides,  what  is  the  meaning  of  colonization?  Is  it 
merely  the  clearing  of  the  soil  ?  In  this  point  of  view 
the  colonies  of  Louis  XTV.  in  Canada  would  compare 

*  Java,  Siam,  Canton.     Voyage  autour  du  Monde,  p.  438. 


110  THE  FUTUBB  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

favorably  with  the  most  flourishing  of  those  of  other 
nations.  Is  it  to  work  the  ground  for  the  profit  of  the 
immigrants  ?  In  that  case  the  English  deserve  the 
palm  which  all  the  world  allows  them.  But  if  we  un- 
derstand by  colonization,  carrying  civilization  into  the 
hearts  of  the  native  population  whose  territory  you 
occupy,  then  the  Portuguese  and  Spaniards  of  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries  seem  to  me  to  have 
been  the  foremost  colonizers  in  the  world.  Histories 
writ'en-.-do  not  let  us  forget  it— by  pens  which  were  any- 
thing but  impartial,  have  tarnished  (and  justly,  if  the 
facts  related  be  true)  the  reputation  of  the  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  conquerors,  and  accused  them  of  unheard- 
of  acts  of  cruelty,  oppression,  and  wrong.  Even  those 
who  were  reported  gentle  and  humane  employed 
means  which  our  own  century  would  not  stand  for  a 
moment.  But  these  kingdoms  beyond  the  seas  were 
rich  and  prosperous,  and  the  capitals  of  the  presiden- 
cias  became  the  centres  of  civilization.  Ths  natives 
flocked  into  them,  and  took  back  to  their  homes,  with 
the  light  of  Christianity  (though  perhaps  feeble  and 
uncertain)  the  ideas  and  usages  (though  very  imper- 
fect also)  of  civilized  life.  The  progress  made  was 
real  and  lasting.  Witnesses  who  are  beyond  suspicion 
—travellers  who,  like  Alexander  Humboldt,  have  visit- 
ed the  Spanish  colonies  at  the  beginning  of  this  cen- 
tury— that  is,  at  a  time  when  Spain  herself  had  long 
since  fallen  from  her  rank  among  the  first  powers  of 
Europe — speak  with  admiration  of  the  organization 
Bhe  had  left  behind — of  the  regularity  of  the  adminis- 
trative service  in  these  colonies — of  the  security  and 


CATHOLICS  AND  COLONIZATION.  Ill 

order  which,  reigned  there,  and  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
colonial  laws,  drawn  up  and  codified  under  the  reign 
of  the  Philips.  The  Court  of  Madrid,  it  is  true,  drew 
from  its  territories  beyond  the  seas  a  quantity  of  pre- 
cious metals ;  but  on  the  other  hand  the  mother-coun- 
try gave  her  blood.  The  constant  emigration  which 
finally  exhausted  Spain  is,  in  truth,  one  of  the  princi- 
pal causes  of  the  rapid  decadence  of  this  noble  and 
chivalrous  nation.  Even  to  this  day  the  young  men 
of  certain  provinces  expatriate  themselves  in  crowds. 
In  the  north,  and  especially  in  the  Asturias,  one  only 
sees  women  and  old  men.  The  young  ones  are  gone 
to  Havana,  Peru,  or  to  Rio  de  la  Plata.  When  traver- 
sing the  hamlets  buried  in  the  gorges  of  the  Canta- 
brian  mountains  I  used  to  see  notices  put  up  in  every 
direction  announcing  the  departure  of  such  and  such 
ships  from  Santander,  Gijon,  and  Ribadesilla,  for 
Cuba  and  South  America — all,  it  was  stated,  furnished 
with  a  surgeon  and  a  chaplain.  Alas  !  both  one  and 
the  other  are  necessary,  for  in  these  passages  the  mor- 
tality is  frightful.  Every  one  of  these  emigrants  (and 
formerly  even  more  so  than  now)  becomes,  very  often 
unknown  to  himself,  an  agent  of  civilization.  Thus, 
see  the  results.  Wherever  the  Spaniards  have 
reigned  we  find  Indian  tribes  who  have  embraced 
Christianity,  and  adopted,  in  a  certain  measure,  our 
habits  and  ideas.  The  greater  part  of  the  politicians 
whom  we  now  see  at  the  head  of  their  republics  are  of 
Indian  origin.  I  have  had  pure  redskins  as  colleagues; 
and  I  have  seen  ladies  of  the  same  color,  dressed  by 
Worth,  delighting  in  Patti's  roulades.  I  do  not  quote 


112       THE  FUTURE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

these  personages  as  models  of  statesmen;  or  these  fair 
critics  as  great  authorities  in  music;  but  the  fact  is 
none  the  less  significant.  Well,  this  is  the  work  of 
Spanish  colonization.  Can  one  say  the  same  thing  of 
the  effect  of  English  emigration  ?  Evidently  not.  I 
set  aside  all  question  of  India,  which  I  have  not  yet 
visited.  But  everywhere,  especially  in  North  Ameri- 
ca, the  contact  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  with  semi- 
barbarous  savages  is  fatal  to  the  latter.  They  only 
adopt  European  vices;  they  hate  and  fly  from  us,  and 
that  is  the  wisest  thing  they  can  do;  or  else  they  per- 
ish miserably.  In  every  way  they  remain  what  they 
have  always  been — savages.  But  what  is  the  use  of 
discussing  the  comparative  merits  of  different  nations  ? 
Bather  let  us  render  to  each  their  due."* 

Farther  on  Baron  von  Hiibner  adds  : 

"France  is  rich  enough  to  pay  for  her  glory,  her  ideas, 
her  caprices,  and  even  her  faults.  Since  the  days  of 
Louis  XIV.  she  has  held  to  the  idea  of  pervading  the 
whole  earth,  and  striking  all  nations  with  the  prestige 
of  her  greatness.  The  pursuance  of  this  policy  im- 
poses upon  her,  it  is  true,  in  these  distant  regions, 
sacrifices  which  are  not  strictly  in  accordance  with  the 
material  interests  of  her  traders.  But  this  considera- 
tion does  not  stop  her.  She  has  given  herself  the  hon- 
orable and  civilizing  mission  of  protecting  her 
co-religionists  all  over  the  world.  Do  not  let  us  look 
too  closely  into  her  motives,  which  perhaps  are  not  all 
purely  religious.  The  results  have  been,  and  are,  as 

*  A  Ramble  Round  the  World,  by  M.  le  Baron  de  Hiibner, 
translated  by  Lady  Herbert;  p.  448  (New  York,  1874.) 


CATHOLICS  AND  COLONIZATION.  113 

everyone  must  allow,  the  most  important  services  that 
could  be  rendered  to  humanity. 

"In  the  world  of  ideas,  the  French  are  the  most  ex- 
pansive people  in  the  universe.  By  doing  both  great 
good  and  some  harm,  they  have  impregnated  the  whole 
civilized  world  with  their  tastes,  their  ideas,  and  even 
with  their  fashions.  But  no  nation  has  so  great  a  dislike- 
to  leave  their  homes.  French  emigrants  are  the  least 
numerous  everywhere;  and  even  those  one  does  meet 
with  are  not  (saving  certain  honorable  exceptions)  the 
brightest  specimens  of  their  nation.  The  trutfi.  is,  that 
France  offers  to  her  children  space  and  means  where- 
with to  support  them,  to  arrive  at  a  comfortable  in- 
dependence, and  occasionally,  to  riches  and  the  highest 
offices  in  the  state.  Those  who  quit  her  shores  rarely 
find,  beyond  them,  the  fortune  which  they  have  dis- 
dained to  seek  at  home.  But,  side  by  side  with  these 
emigrants,  who  are  not  always  successful,  there  are 
others,  who,  while  living  and  acting  in  comparative 
obscurity,  surround  themselves  in  their  distant  coun- 
try with  an  aureola  of  imperishable  glory.  In  China, 
as  in  every  other  foreign  land,  wherever  you  see  above 
the  Consulate  the  French  flag  flying,  you  perceive 
likewise,  in  the  neighborhood,  the  spire  of  a  church, 
and  alongside  a  convent,  a  school,  a  hospital.  There 
human  minds  are  being  enlightened  by  civilization, 
and  human  hearts  by  faith;  there  the  wounds  of  both 
souls  and  bodies  are  healed,  miseries  are  alleviated, 
and  the  apostolic  virtues  of  charity,  love,  self-abne- 
gation, patience,  and  devotion  are  exercised  in  the 
highest  degree.  All  these  missionaries  and  Sisters 


114  THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

are  not  French,  it  is  true  :  Italy,  Spain,  and  Belgium 
have  furnished  their  contingent ;  but  the  great  ma- 
jority of  these  Christian  heroes  and  heroines  belong  to 
France  ;  and  it  is  France  which  shields  them  with  her 
powerful  protection."* 

There  is  no  writer  at  present  who  is  of  more  author- 
ity in  matters  of  colonization  than  M.  X.  Marmier. 
His  last  bookf  contains  a  very  interesting  chapter 
entitled  :  "La  France  dans  ses  colonies."  I  borrow 
this  quotation  from  it  : 

"Disastrous  wars  and  lamentable  treaties  have  taken 
from  us  most  of  our  ancient  possessions.  But  we  have 
left  on  them  a  profound  impression.  A  distinguished 
English  writer,  Anthony  Trollope,  recently  visited  the 
Antilles,and  there  he  was  witness  of  the  persistency  of 
the  attachment  to  France  in  islands  formerly  governed 
by  France,  not  uninterruptedly  during  centuries,  but 
during  a  small  number  of  years  :  Santo  Domingo,  To- 
bago, Santa  Lucia,  Trinidad  ;  Trinidad,  first  occupied 
by  the  Spaniards,  then  by  the  English,  conquered  and 
restored  to  Spain  by  the  French,  then  retaken  anew 
by  the  English.  What  language,  says  Mr.  Trollope, 
do  you  think  they  speak  in  this  island  in  which  we 
have  a  governor,  an  administrative  council,  a  garrison 
and  important  counting  houses?  English?  No.  Span- 
ish? No.  But  French.  The  whole  population  is  French 
by  its  idioms,  by  its  customs  and  by  its  Catholicism. 
To  this  honest  avowal  Mr.  Trollope  adds:  there  is  a 

*  A  Ramble  Hound  the  World,  page  456. 
f  En  Pays  Lointains,  par  X.  Marmier,  de  I'Academie  Fran- 
9aise.    (Paris:  Hachette,  1876.) 


CATHOLICS   AND   COLONIZATION".  115 

Catholic  bishop  there  who  receives  a  yearly  pension 
from  England  which  he  distributes  entirely  in  alms. 
There,  as  well  as  wherever  else  old  France  has  passed, 
its  memory  is  associated  with  the  virtues  of  Catholi- 
cism and  the  spirit  of  charity.  At  St.  Vincent  we  may 
note  another  example  of  the  attraction  of  our  emi- 
grants. The  English  having  taken  possession  of  this 
island, the  Carribees,who  occupied  a  portion  of  it,  rose 
in  arms  on  three  different  occasions  to  expel  them,  and 
call  back  the  French,  whose  domination  they  longed 
for." 

The  witty  academician  has  brought  together  a  host 
of  facts  of  this  kind.  All  have  for  object  to  prove  the 
following  thesis  : 

"  It  has  been  often  said  :  France  knows  not  how  to 
colonize.  Should  we  admit  this  reproach  without  con- 
testing it?  The  other  nations  are  pleased  with  pro- 
claiming their  merits.  We  indolently  let  ours  be 
depreciated,  and  sometimes  we  depreciate  them  our- 
selves. We  have  been  accused  of  abandoning  our- 
selves to  futile  vanities.  It  would  be  better  for  us 
to  maintain  ourselves  in  a  just  degree  of  pride.  The 
history  of  our  colonies  is  one  of  the  noblest  and  often 
one  of  the  most  attractive  pages  of  our  annals.  It  has 
been  eloquently  and  learnedly  told  on  different  occasions 
and  in  different  places.  I  have  no  intention  of  retrac- 
ing a  new  sketch  of  it.  In  collecting  together  my 
memories  of  travel,  in  adding  to  them  recent  studies,  I 
would  only  show,  by  a  few  characteristic  traits,  the 
particular  qualities  of  colonization  with  which  France 
lias  been  gifted  on  all  occasions.  Hardihood  in  enter* 


116  THE  FOTTJEB  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

prise,  generosity  in  victory,  dignity  in  misfortune. 
Other  nations  have  achieved  more  brilliant  or  more 
lasting  successes.  None  has  shown  such  virtues." 

M.  X.  Marmier's  testimony  is  at  least  worth  that  of 
M.  Thiers,  who,  forty  years  ago,  wittily  mocked  the 
future  of  railways,  and  still  believes,  even  to  this  day, 
in  custom  houses.  The  colonies  of  the  French  mission- 
aries in  the  present  century  recall  the  glory  of  the  great 
Descubradores  of  the  Iberian  peninsula,  and  Algeria, 
colonized  by  the  French  within  the  last  forty-five 
years,  bears  comparison  with  all  the  conqjiests  made 
by  the  Anglo-Saxons  since  the  reign  of  Louis  XV. 
Father  Marquette  first  explored  the  Meschace'be', 
which  Eobert  Lasalle  afterwards  descended  to  give 
to  France  Louisiana, where  Bienville  afterwards  founded 
New  Orleans.  Champlain  laid  the  foundations  of 
the  city  of  Quebec.  This  is  how  M.  X.  Marmier  de- 
scribes the  foundation  of  Montreal ! 

"In  1641  two  small  vessels  set  out  fromLaRochelle 
for  Canada.  On  one  of  these  ships  was  a  holy  maiden, 
Mile.  Manse  de  Langres,  who  renounced  a  brilliant  po- 
sition in  her  own  country  to  devote  herself  to  works  of 
charity  amid  savage  regions;  on  the  other  was  a  gentle- 
man of  Champagne,  M.  de  Maisonneuve,  a  priest, 
some  soldiers  and  laborers,  thirty  persons  in  all.  In 
the  month  of  August  the  good  travellers  arrived  at 
Quebec.  The  colony  of  this  town  tried  to  retain  them. 
It  was  composed  of  two  hundred  souls.  Thirty  addi- 
tional heroes,  what  a  precious  reinforcement !  But 
M.  de  Maisonneuve  had  made  up  his  mind  to  go  to 
Hochelaga,  and  he  wished  to  fulfil  his  promise.  It 


CATHOLICS  AND  COLONIZATION.  117 

was  in  vain  that  they  pointed  out  to  him  the  dangers 
to  which  he  was  exposing  himself  in  approaching,  with 
so  small  a  number  of  soldiers,  this  island  occupied  by 
a  considerable  tribe  of  Indians.  He  answered  like 
a  valiant  gentleman  :  *I  have  not  come  to  deliberate 
but  to  act.  Should  there  be  at  Hochelaga  as  many 
Iroquois  as  there  are  trees  on  this  plain,  I  am  in  duty 
and  in  honor  bound  to  establish  a  colony  there. '  In 
the  month  of  October  he  reached  the  coast  of  Hochel- 
aga, and  there  constructed  cabins  and  a  chapel  of  wood. 
Mile.  Manse  organized  an  hospital  in  the  same  place, 
and  a  Sister  from  Troyes  founded  the  institution  in 
which  young  girls  were  to  be  brought  up  gratuitously. 
A  few  tents  in  the  midst  of  the  woods,  a  chapel,  shel- 
tered with  a  roof  of  leaves,  a  bell  suspended  from  the 
branch  of  a  fir  tree,  an  hospital  for  the  sick,  a  school 
for  the  poor,  such  were  the  first  elements  of  our  city 
of  Montreal, which  now  contains  eighty  thousand  souls." 

It  is  not  in  this  wise,  we  must  acknowledge,  that  the 
Anglo-Saxons  or  Dutch  Protestants  proceeded.  One 
of  the  pearls  of  the  colonial  British  empire  is  the  island 
of  Mauritius,  which  its  peaceful  conqueror,  the  Cheva- 
lier de  Fougdres,  commandant  of  the  Triton,  of  Saint 
Malo,  called  the  Isle  of  France.  This  valiant  officer 
erected  upon  the  beach  a  cross  decorated  with  lilies, 
with  this  inscription: 

Jubet  hie  Gallia  stare  Crucem.* 

We  must  not  grow  weary  of  recalling  these  memo- 
ries which  are  more  glorious  for  France  than  all  the 

*"  Here  France  bids  the  Cross  to  stand." 


118  THE  FUTUBB  OF  CATHOLIC!  PEOPLES. 

"  conquests  of  '89  "  and  the  wars  of  the  Empire. 
Jacques  Cartier,  who,  with  two  small  vessels  of  60 
tons,  skirted  the  bank  of  Newfoundland  to  ascend  the 
course  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  has  left  us  the  story  of  his 
voyage.  This  is  how  he  begins  : 

"  On  Sunday  the  day  and  feast  of  Pentecost,  by  the 
command  of  the  captain  and  the  good  wish  of  all,  each 
made  his  confession  and  all  together  received  our  Lord 
in  the  cathedral  church  of  St.  Malo,  after  having  re- 
ceived which  we  were  presented  to  the  choir  of  the 
said  church  before  the  reverend  father  in  God,  Mon- 
sieur of  St.  Malo,  who  in  his  episcopal  state  gave  us 
his  benediction." 

Father  Marquette,  on  returning  from  the  regions  in 
which  he  had  discovered  the  Mississippi,  wrote  in  his 
narrative  these  admirable  lines  : 

"  When  the  entire  journey  was  worth  only  the  sal- 
vation of  one  soul  I  esteemed  all  my  troubles  well  re- 
compensed, and  this  is  what  I  have  reason  to  presume, 
for  when  on  my  return  we  passed  by  the  Illinois,  I 
spent  three  days  explaining  to  them  the  mysteries  of 
our  faith  through  all  their  cabins,  after  which,  as  we 
embarked,  they  brought  to  me  to  the  water's  edge  a 
dying  child  which  I  baptized  a  little  before  it  died,  by 
an  admirable  providence  for  the  salvation  of  this  in- 
nocent soul. " 

The  whole  history  of  the  colonization  of  the  Yankees 
of  North  America  does  not  present  us  with  so  noble  a. 
figure  as  that  of  Montcalm,  the  hero  of  French  Canada. 
We  loudly  proclaim  that  if  Spain,  Portugal  and  .Frui^o 
were  not  allowed  to  become  weak  through  the  Cse  ^ar- 


CATHOLICS   AND   COLONIZATION.  119 

ism  of  the  Bourbons  and  the  political  doctrines 
which  we  now  call  Liberal,  these  countries  would 
be  at  present  what  they  then  were  and  what  they 
may  become  once  more,  the  foremost  colonizers  in 
the  world.  The  masterpiece  of  the  colonial  policy 
of  modern  England  is  India.  But  at  Calcutta  the 
English  are  only  following,  even  in  the  inferior  point 
of  view  of  material  interests,  the  examples  set  by 
France. 

"  The  man  who  first  saw  that  it  was  possible  to  found 
an  European  empire  on  the  ruins  of  the  Mogul  mon- 
archy was  Dupleix.  His  restless,  capacious,  and  in- 
ventive mind  had  formed  this  scheme,  at  a  time  when 
the  ablest  servants  of  the  English  Company  were  bus- 
ied only  about  invoices  andbills  of  lading.  .  .  .  The 
arts  both  of  war  and  policy,  which  a  few  years  later 
were  employed  with  such  signal  success  by  the  Eng- 
lish, were  first  understood  and  practised  by  this  ingen- 
ious and  aspiring  Frenchman."* 

Ah  !  the  nationalities  subject  to  Home  no  longer  colo- 
nize !  But  who  colonizes,  then  ?  The  Prussian 
Lutherans  ?  The  Swiss  Calvinists  ?  The  hundred 
sects  of  the  United  States  of  North  America  ?  A  hun- 
dred times  no.  Is  it  England  properly  so-called  ?  Is 
it  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  North  America  ?  Is  it  the  Protes- 
tant portion  of  the  people  of  Holland  ?  This  is  what 
we  are  going  to  examine. 

Holland,  the  United  States,  and  especially  England, 
certainly  signalize  themselves  in  our  age  by  the 

*  Critical  and,  Historical  Essays,  by  Lord  Macaulay.  Essay  on 
Lord  Olive. 


120       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

practical  intelligence  and  energetic  tenacity  of  their 
commercial  and  colonial  policy,  which  we  must  distin- 
guish from  the  civilizing  and  Christian  work  of  coloni- 
zation properly  so-called.  The  actual '  'colonial  policy" 
of  England  is  the  masterpiece  of  this  great  people ;  but 
this  policy  is  neither  Protestant  nor  Catholic,  nor  even 
anti-Catholic.  It  has  for  object  the  well-understood 
mercantile  interest  of  Great  Britain,  applies  to  the 
colonies  the  doctrines  of  Adam  Smith,  but  does  not  ex- 
clude the  simultaneous  application  by  private  individu- 
als of  the  great  spiritualistic  principles  of  colonization 
formerly  employed  so  successfully  by  the  Spaniards, 
Portuguese  and  French.  Most  of  the  colonies  which 
England  possesses  to-day  have  been  taken  by  her  at 
recent  dates  from  the  Spaniards, Portuguese, French, or 
Dutch.  One  of  the  few  colonies  which  it  created,  and 
w  lien  it  no  longer  possesses;  is  New  England,  which 
was  founded  in  spite  of  itself.  What  was  this  colony  ? 
It  was  composed  of  fugitives,  malcontents,  misan- 
thropes, and  sectaries,  who  removed  from  merry  old 
England,  which  was  not  at  all  sorry  to  lose  them.  Cardi- 
nal Manning,  whose  great  mind  and  noble  heart  pesonify 
for  me  the  future  of  the  Catholic  people  of  England,  re- 
cently reminded  us  of  the  history  of  the  foundation  of 
Maryland.  I  will  trouble  M.  de  Laveleye  with  this 
quotation  : 

"Lord  Baltimore,  who  had  been  Secretary  of  State 
under  James  L,  in  1633,   emigrated  to  the  American 
Plantations, where,  through  Lord  Stafford's  influence, 
he  had  obtained  a  grant  of  land.      He  was  accompan- 
ied by  men  of  all  minds,  who  agreed  chiefly  in  the  one 


CATHOLICS  AND   COLONIZATION.  121 

desire  to  leave  behind  them  the  miserable  religious 
conflicts  which  then  tormented  England.  They  named 
their  new  country  Maryland,  and  there  they  settled. 
The  oath  of  the  Governor  was.  in  these  terms  :  *  I  will 
not,  by  myself  or  any  other,  directly  or  indirectly, mo- 
lest any  person  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ, 
for  or  in  respect  of  religion.'  Lord  Baltimore  invited 
the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts,  who,  like  himself,  had 
renounced  their  country  for  conscience'  sake,  to  come 
into  Maryland.  In  1649,  when  active  persecution  had 
sprung  up  again  in  England,  the  Council  of  Mary- 
land, an  the  21st  of  April,  passed  this  statute  :  *  And 
whereas  the  forcing  of  the  conscience  in  matters  of  re- 
ligion has  frequently  fallen  out  to  be  of  dangerous 
consequence  in  the  commonwealth  where  it  has  been 
practised,  and  for  the  more  quiet  and  peaceable  gov- 
ernment of  the  province,  and  the  better  to  preserve 
mutual  love  and  amity  among  the  inhabitants,  no  per- 
son within  the  province  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus 
Christ  shall  be  anyways  troubled,  molested,  or  dis- 
countenanced for  his  or  her  religion,  or  in  the  free  ex- 
ercise thereof.'  The  Episcopalians  and  Protestants 
fled  from  Virginia  into  Maryland.  Such  was  the  com- 
monwealth founded  by  a  Catholic  upon  the  broad  mor- 
al law  I  have  here  laid  down  —  that  faith  is  an  act  of 
the  will,  and  that  to  force  men  to  profess  what  they  do 
not  believe  is  contrary  to  the  law  of  God,  and  that  to 
generate  faith  by  force  is  morally  impossible.  It  was 
by  conviction  of  the  reason  and  by  persuasion  of  the 
will  that  the  world- wide  unity  of  faith  and  communion 
were  slowly  built  up  among  the  nations.  When  once 


122  THE   FUTURE   OF   CATHOLIC   PEOPLES. 

shattered,  nothing  but  conviction  and  persuasion  can 
restore  it.  Lord  Baltimore  was  surrounded  by  a  mul- 
titude scattered  by  the  great  wreck  of  the  Tudor  perse- 
cutions. He  knew  that  God  alone  could  build  them 
up  again  into  unity;  but  that  the  equity  of  charity 
might  enable  them  to  protect  and  to  help  each  other, 
and  to  promote  the  common  weal. 

"I  cannot  refrain  from  continuing  the  history.  The 
Puritan  commonwealth  in  England  brought  on  a  Puri- 
tan revolution  in  Maryland.  They  acknowledged  Crom- 
well, and  disfranchised  the  whole  Catholic  population. 
•Liberty  of  conscience  '  was  declared,  but  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  '  Popery,  Prelacy,  and  licentiousness  of 
opinion.'  Penal  laws  came  of  course.  Quakers  in 
Massachusetts,  for  their  first  offence,  lost  one  ear  ;  for 
the  second,  the  other  ;  for  the  third,  had  their  tongue 
seared  with  a  red  hot  iron.  Women  were  whipped, 
and  men  were  hanged,  for  religion."* 

England  has  been  severely  punished,  for  it  has  lost 
the  only  countries  that,  before  the  sixteenth  century,  it 
could  have  the  pretension  of  having  really  colonized 
by  sending  to  them  its  own  children.  The  punishment 
has  been  so  much  the  more  severe,  as  on  the  very 
territory  of  this  lost  colony  it  has  seen  a  rival  power 
arise,  and  one  so  much  the  more  to  be  dreaded  as  it 
speaks  the  same  language. 

The  Dutch  do  not  possess  a  single  colony  to-day 
which  they  founded,  in  the  sense  of  Catholic  colonies, 

*  The  Vatican  Decrees  in  their  bearing  on  Civil  Allegiance, 
by  Henry  Edward,  Archbishop  of  Westminster  ;  page  89.  (New 
York  :  The  Catholic  Publication  Society,  1875.) 


CATHOLICS  AND  COLONIZATION.  123 

that  is  to  say,  a  colony  in  -which  are  found  all  the  in- 
stitutions, all  the  manners  and  the  religion  of  the 
mother  country.  Their  establishment  in  the  Indies 
is  an  immense  counting  house  of  commerce  and  indus- 
try defended  by  a  powerful  army  ;  they  run  to  amass 
a  fortune  in  the  Indies,  then  they  return  to  enjoy  their 
wealth  in  Europe,  at  the  Hague,  at  Amsterdam,  at 
Paris,  and  even  at  Brussels.  But  they  do  not  colonize 
in  the  Spanish,  Portuguese  or  French  sense  of  the 
word — I  do  not  reproach  them  for  it  here,  but  since 
we  are  driven  to  it,  we  must  surely  point  out  the  con- 
siderable distance  that  separates  Catholic  principles 
in  this  matter  from  the  precepts  of  all  the  other  known 
forms  of  worship.  • 

As  to  the  United  States,  directed,  I  acknowledge,  by 
the  political  genius  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race*,  a  genius 
which  in  itself  belongs  as  well  to  Cardinals  Manning 
and  MoCloskey  and  Mr.  Brownson,  as  to  Mr.  Disraeli, 
President  Grant  and  Mr.  Gladstone  ;  as  to  the  United 
States  they  especially  owe  their  prodigious  develop- 
ment to  immigration.  I  have  not  now  at  hand  the 
complete  statistics  of  the  astonishing  movement  of 
European  populations  towards  the  countries  in  which 
the  sun  sets  to  us  ;  but  I  confidently  assert  that  one  of 
the  principal  causes  of  the  greatness  of  the  United 

*  It  is  from  his  familiarity  with  English  writers  that  our  au- 
thor is  led  lo  think  so  highly  of  the  "  Anglo-Saxon  race."  The 
truth  is  tkat  the  English  element  is  far  from  being  the  most 
prominent  in  this  country,  either  in  business  enterprise  or  lite- 
rary talent.  The  portion  of  our  population  which  furnishes 
the  largest  contingent  to  the  energy  aud  intelligence  of  the 
nation  would  feel  anything  but  complimented  by  being  called 
"Anglo-Saxons." 


124  THE  FUTUBE  OF   CATHOLIC    PEOPLES. 

States  is  the  immigration  of  Catholics.  Mr.  Maguire, 
formerly  a  member  of  the  English  parliament,  has 
proved  that  his  compatriots,  the  Irish  Catholics,  "  con- 
quered "  a  portion  of  the  United  States.  A  French 
Review,  the  Contemporain,  lately  published  special 
statistics  on  emigration  to  the  United  States,  which 
received  from  1820  to  1860,  208,063  French,  whilst 
Prussia  furnished  to  this  movement  in  the  same  space 
of  time  only  80,432  immigrants.  Among  these  Prus- 
sians there  were  many  Catholics,  and  I  believe  many 
Catholics  from  Luxemburg.  In  the  grand  duchy  of 
Luxemburg  there  have  been  veritable  secessions  of 
entire  villages,  starting  out  with  their  pastor,  burgo- 
master and  schoolmaster. 

All  the  new  western  States  of  the  Union  are  peopled 
by  Catholics.  Moreo\er,  to  be  convinced  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  Catholic  population  of  the  United 
States,  it  suffices  to  consider  the  ecclesiastical  hier- 
archy which  has  been  formed  in  half  a  century  : 
forty  dioceses,  half  of  the  Church  of  France. 

The  French  (Catholic)  population  is  increasing  in 
British  Canada,  where  the  Irish  Catholics,  those  ver- 
itable colonizing  emissaries  of  England,  have  come  to 
settle  in  multitudes.  To  form  an  idea  of  them, 
consult  once  more  the  table  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy. 
The  same  remarks  will  do  for  the  Cape,  Australia, 
New  Zealand,  Tasmania,  etc. 

The  reader  may  remark  that  I  do  not  pretend  to 
give  to  Catholics  the  too  frequently  sad  privilege  of  emi- 
gration, I  simply  say  that  throughout  the  whole  of 
the  great  colonizing  movement,  in  which  our  age  is 


CATHOLICS  AND  COLONIZATION.  125 

taking  part  with  astonishment,  among  the  Anglo-Sax- 
on races,  it  is  Catholic  civilization  that  is  leading  the 
way.  Your  friends  themselves  are  frightened  at  it,  for 
I  read  every  day  in  their  journals  the  expression  of  the 
terror  they  feel  at  seeing  the  influence  of  Catholics  in 
the  elections  of  the  United  States  and  Canada.  But 
lately  the  government  of  Victoria  (Melbourne),  one  of 
the  most  flourishing  colonies  of  Australia,  was  even 
composed  of  Catholics,  since  one  of  its  principal  per- 
sonages was  Mr.  Duffy,  the  Irish  member  of  Parlia- 
ment who,  twenty-five  years  ago,  had  so  hard  a 
struggle  with  the  English  government. 

A  former  colleague  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  Mr.  Forster, 
in  a  meeting  held  at  Edinburgh,  lately  gave  with  feel- 
ings of  pride  a  magnificent  description  of  the  immense 
possessions  of  the  British  Empire,  and  he  coolly  dis- 
cussed the  chances  England  had  of  preserving  or  losing 
India.  A  book  might  be  written  on  this  subject.  I 
resume  it  thus :  in  presence  of  the  actual  efforts  of  the 
government  at  London  it  is  to  be  desired  that  India 
remain  a  British  possession,  for  if  the  English  have  not 
always  accomplished  on  the  Ganges  and  the  Indus  the 
duty  of  Christian  colonizers,  and  if  they  are  not  doing 
so  thoroughly  even  to-day,  they  at  least  no  longer  for- 
bid others  to  accomplish  it  in  their  stead,  and  they  are 
preventing  a  terrible  anarchy  among  the  natives.  The 
energy,  activity,  intelligence  and  courage  which  tke 
English  statesmen  and  the  army  are  showing  for  many 
years  past  in  this  immense  Indian  empire,  eight  times 
more  extensive  and  six  times  more  populous  than  the 
entire  United  Kingdom,  and  kept  in  check  by  a  hand- 


126  THE  jrUTUKB  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

ful  of  Europeans,  certainly  presents  a  marvellous  spec- 
tacle, which  gives  a  high  idea  of  the  actual  policy  of 
the  English  monarchy,  Economists  may  also  admire 
the  vast  network  of  railroads  and  telegraph  lines  with 
which  the  administration  of  the  viceroys  has  endowed 
the  country,  and  financiers  will  calculate  the  dividends 
which  the  English  residents  are  at  present  laying  by  af- 
ter scoring  up  their  accounts.  But  to  all  these  splendors 
I  prefer  the  results  of  the  ancient  Portuguese  or  French 
colonization  and  the  present  situation  of  the  Spanish  col- 
onization in  the  Philippines,  held  in  such  disdain  by 
economists  properly  so  called.*  At  the  risk  of  exciting 
their  pity  for  me  I  add  that  the  blustering  history  of 
the  exploits  of  the  English  in  India  and  the  Chinese 
seas  chille  me  when  I  compare  it  with  the  epic  story  of 
the  heroic  triumphs  obtained  on  the  same  ground  in 
the  sixteenth  century  by  St.  Francis  Xavier  with  his 
crucifix,  and  the  annals  which  all  the  Catholic  mission- 
aries in  Asia  are  even  at  this  moment  writing  with  their 
blood.  No,  no,  I  say  it  boldly,  it  is  only  the  nations 
"  subject  to  Borne,"  that  do  not  appear  to  be  stricken 
with  sterility,  and  it  is  only  they  that  colonize.  This 
is  the  truth.  Are  you  acquainted  with  the  work  of  the 
Propagation  of  the  Faith,  the  most  colossal  instrument 
of  colonization  that  is  known  in  history  ?  It  was  a 
poor  Catholic  maid-servant  that  founded  it  at  Lyons 
by  picturing  to  her  imagination  an  association  in  which 
each  associate  might  pay  one  cent  a  week.  This  idea, 

*I  ought,  however,  to  make  an  exception  in  the  case  of  Herr 
Boscher,  He  has  written  a  little  book  which  is  replete  with 
facts,  entitled  :  Colonies,  Colonial  Policy  and  Emigration. 
(Leipsio :  1856.) 


CATHOLICS  AND   COLONIZATION.  127 

BO  simple  and  so  humble,  has  been  blessed  in  the  Cath- 
olic Church  by  the  Sovereign  Master  of  the  colonists  of 
all  ages.  These  cents  have  germinated.  They  an- 
nually become  millions  which  serve  to  send  into  every 
part  of  the  earth  laborers  in  the  cause  of  civilization 
whose  blood  possesses  the  marvellous  gift  of  fertilizing 
the  nations  that  commit  the  crime  of  shedding  it. 
Sanguis  martyrum  semen  Christianorum.  I  know 
that  the  Protestant  Churches  also  send  out  mission- 
aries, and  God  keep  me  from  criticising  devoted  men 
who  undertake  these  missions  with  sincerity  and  self-de- 
niaL  But  I  should  be  allowed  to  show  that  the  results 
of  the  Protestant  missions,  however  respectable  they 
maybe  in  the  intentions  of  their  promoters,  cannot  even- 
be  put  on  a  comparison  with  the  admirable  fecundity 
of  the  Catholic  apostolate. 

And  since  we  are  on  this  so  interesting  chapter  of 
Catholic  colonization,  let  us  inform  several  of  our  fel- 
low-citizens that  Belgium,  the  immense  majority  of 
•whose  inhabitants  honor  themselves  also,  in  spite 
of  their  material  prosperity,  with  being  "subject 
to  Borne,"  is  as  fruitful  as  the  other  Catholic  nations 
in  this  propagation  of  Christian  civilization  among 
the  most  savage  peoples  on  earth.  What  one  of  us 
has  not  heard  of  Father  de  Smet,  so  humble,  so  good, 
so  enterprising,  for  the  good  of  souls  ?  This  illustrious 
Jesuit,  of  whom  our  friend,  Father  Deynoodt,  has 
•written  the  life  and  published  the  letters,  was,  by  him- 
Balf  alone,  more  powerful  among  the  redskins  of  the 
West  than  was  the  government  of  the  United  States.  His 
,  inspired  by  the  Catholic  faith,  subdued  eav- 


328  THE  FUTURE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

age  nations,  and  when  the    government   at  Washing- 
fen  "wished  to  obtain  something  from  the  former  pos- 
sessors of  the  soil  of  the  Union,  to  whom  did  it  apply  ? 
To  this  priest  from  Termonde,    "subject  to  the  voice 
of  Borne,"  as  M.  de  Laveleye  would  say.    And  who 
•were  the  companions  of  this  groat  man  of  peace,  this 
dvilizer,  this  veritable  doctor  in  colonization  ?  Father 
de  Theux,  the  brother  of  the  venerable  minister  whose 
loss  we  yet  mourn,  Father  Verhaegen,  the  cousin  of 
the  former  president  of  the  Liberal  Association  of 
Brussels,  and  a  hundred  other  Belgian  priests.     There 
is  at  Louvain,  besides  the  Society  of  Jesus,  a  special 
American  college,  whose  incessant  labor  consists  in 
Bending  missionaries  to  America.     It  is  to  the  Belgian 
Jesuits  that  has  been  entrusted  the  mission  of  Bengal, 
where  our  compatriots  possess  a  flourishing  college  and 
where  they  render  more  services  to  the  English  author- 
ities than  divisions    of  infantry.     The  learned  Father 
Carbonnelle,  sr  ^retary  of  the  Scientific  Society,  which 
has  been  founded  at  Brussels,  has  only  just  returned 
from  this  perilous  mission.     One  of  the  sons  of  M.  A. 
Neut,  of  the  Patrie,  of  Bruges,  has  lost  his  health 
there.     One  of  the  brothers  of  our  colleague,  M.  de 
Penaranda,   died    there,   carried  off  by  the    severi- 
ty of  the  climate.     Twenty  others   of  our  fellow-citi- 
zens have  sacrificed  their  health  for  the  last  fifteen 
years  in  this  work  of  civilization,  in  a  very  unhealthy 
land,made  famous  by  the  labors  of  the  first  Jesuits,  in- 
defatigable laborers  who  are  repairing  with  obstinacy 
all  the  ruins  accumulated  by  savagery,   the  spirit  of 
error  or  hatred.    Allow  me,  in  passing,  to  remind  you 


OATHOUCS  AND  COLONIZATION.  129 

of  a  personal  reminiscence  :  Professor  David  Forbes, 
F.  B.  S.,  related  to  me  that  on  one  of  his  scientific  ex- 
peditions in  South  America  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  a 
band  of  Indians  who  were  already  prepared  to  scalp 
him,  when  he  was  delivered  by  some  "black  robes," 
Jesuits,  who,  at  the  foot  of  the  Cordilleras,  500  leagues 
from  the  Atlantic  coast,  were  evangelizing  these  sav- 
ages, living  with  them  for  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
His  Church,  and  gradually  raising  them  to  the  dignity 
of  men.  The  Jesuits  enjoyed  an  absolute  respect 
among  their  "friends,"  and  Mr.  Forbes  pictured  them 
to  me  as  the  foremost  colonizers  of  modern  times. 

I  preserve  a  religious  remembrance  of  the  noble 
Abbe*  Yerbie&t,  formerly  chaplain  to  our  military 
Bchool.  This  excellent  priest,  who  honored  me  with 
his  friendship,  heard  the  cry  of  St.  Francis  Xavier  : 
"  Belgians, Belgians,  send  me  Belgians."  Without  any 
resources  but  a  moderate  patrimony,  Father  Verbiest, 
in  his  exceeding  charity  (charity  is  the  source  of  civili- 
zation), resolved  to  go  and  bear  the  words  of  truth  to 
the  countries  to  which  the  Franciscan  Jean  de  Buys- 
broeck,  his  compatriot,  had  formerly  made  his  way  by 
traversing  our  entire  hemisphere  on  foot.  With  his 
first  disciples,  M.  Van  Segvelt,  assistant  pastor  of  St. 
Gudule,  MM.  Vranckx  and  Verlinden  of  Molenbeck, 
M.  Bax  of  Montaign,  MM.  Wilrycks  and  Paaps  of 
Turnhout  and  Hamer  of  Nimeguen,  he  founded  the 
mission  of  Mongolia,  of  which  the  mother  house  is  at 
the  gates  of  Brussels,at  Scheutveld  on  the  Ninoveroad. 
Van  Segvelt  and  Verbiest  were  the  first  to  die  in  the 
Tigers'  Valley,  between  the  fortieth  and  fiftieth  de- 


130      THE  PUTUEB  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

grees  of  latitude,  in  a  desert ;  but  their  work  of  civili- 
zation still  survives.*  Let  us  not  forget  to  mention  in 
addition  all  our  religious  societies  of  women,  which, 
under  an  assumed  name  sometimes  send  the  female 
descendants  of  our  noblest  families  to  instruct  child- 
ren and  convert  adults  in  Africa,  America,  Australia 
and  Asia.  The  mother  house  of  the  Sisters  of  Notre- 
Dame  of  Namur  has  founded  more  than  thirty  stations 
in  the  most  different  latitudes. 

I  have  just  hurriedly  conducted  the  reader  across 
the  vast  plain  of  Catholic  colonization  :  I  ask  every 
sincere  man,  to  whatever  Church  he  may  belong,  is  it 
reasonable  to  assert  that  Catholics  no  longer  colonize  ? 
I  am  justified  in  saying  :  either  M.  de  Laveleye  has  not 
studied  this  subject,  or  he  is  blinded  by  hatred  of  the 
Church.  I  defy  him  also,  as  a  last  challenge,  to  an- 
swer this  question  ;  which  do  you  prefer,  the  Dutch 
Protestants  who  annexed  to  themselves  the  Portuguese 
colonies,  or  the  English  Protestants  who  afterwards 
took  possession  of  the  Dutch  colonies  that  previously 
belonged  to  Portugal,  or  the  Portuguese  Freemasons 
who  allowed  themselves  to  be  duped  by  their  friends 
of  London  and  Amsterdam,  and  have  prepared  for 
their  country  the  loss  of  the  great  colonies  which  the 
"  most  faithful  "  nation  had  founded  ? 

*  Consult  Voyages  de  Bruxelles  en  Mongolie  et  travaux  des 
missionnaires  de  la  Congregation  de  JScheutveld-lei.-J3ruxelles 
(Brussels  :  Coomans,  1873.) 


CHAPTER  V. 

CATHOLICS  AND  CIVIL  LIBEETT. 

Protestant  Countries  have  Experienced' More  Revolutions  than 
Catholic  Countries— The  Moral  Character  of  the  Great 
French  Revolution — Civil  Liberty  in  Italy — In  Belgium — 
What  the  Modern  Protestant  Liberals  Mean  by  Political  Lib- 
erty— Their  Object  in  Preaching  Protestantism  in  Catholic 
Countries— Essays  by  MM.  Quinet  and  Sue— A  Discussion 
between  the  Liberals  on  Liberty. 

Prejudices  disturb  M.  de  Laveleye's  ideas  so  much 
that  he  even  goes  so  far  as  to  accuse  the  Catholic 
Church  of  having  inspired  the  war  which  the  unfortu- 
nate Napoleon  III.  carried  on  in  Mexico,  and  of  hav- 
ing provoked  the  war  of  1870.  These  historical  dis- 
coveries are  truly  extraordinary  in  an  associate  of  M.  J. 
Klaczko.  I  do  not  think  it  worth  while  to  waste  my  time 
in  speaking  about  them.  It  is  but  right,  however,  to 
quote  his  argument  as  a  curiosity : 

*'  It  was  Ultramontanism  that,  through  the  Empress 
Eugenie,  the  mouth-piece  of  the  clerical  party,  urged  the 
undertaking  of  the  expedition  to  Mexico,  to  strengthen 
the  Catholic  nations  of  America,  and  the  Franco-Prussian 
war,  to  raise  an  obstacle  to  the  progress  of  Protestant 
States  in  Europe. " 

A  note  develops  this  theme  in  the  following  manner: 

"  This  is  what  Prince  Bismarck  recently  asserted 
in  the  tribune,  at  Berlin.  The  Empress  said  in  1870 ; 
It  is  my  war.  It  was  she  who,  in  the  supreme  coun- 
cil of  St.  Cloud,  caused  the  war  to  be  decided  on,  of 


132      THE  FUTUBB  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

which  the  Emperor  clearly  saw  the  danger.      This  is 
a  fact  that  henceforward  belongs  to  history." 

The  italics  in  this  note  do  not  appear  in  the  French 
edition.  Why  ?  I  know  not.  Besides,  it  is  of  little 
importance  for  us  to  know  it. 

An  argument  just  as  weak  as  this,  but  more  easily 
put  in  circulation,  because  the  multitude  is  incapable 
of  estimating  its  value,  is  the  following  : 

"The  peoples  subject  to  Borne  .  .  .  have  no 
power  of  expansion  *  .  .  Their  past  is  brilliant,  but 
the  present  is  gloomy  and  the  future  disquieting.  Is 
there  any  situation  more  heartrending  than  that  of 
Spain.  France,  which  has  rendered  such  great  ser- 
vices to  the  world,  is  equally  well  calculated  to  cause  us 
sorrow  .  .  •  because  it  appears  destined  to  be  in- 
cessantly tossed  about  between  despotism  and  anarchy. 
.  .  .  Catholic  countries  are  a  prey  to  intestine  quar- 
rels which  are  consuming  their  strength,  or  which,  at 
least,  are  preventing  them  from  advancing  as  regularly 
and  as  rapidly  as  Protestant  peoples. " 

M.  de  Laveleye  has,  in  the  eyes  of  the  educated,  a 
defect  which  to  the  "vile  multitude"  appears  an  ex- 
cellence. He  dogmatizes  incessantly,  and  gives  himself 
no  trouble  about  proving  his  assertions.  Either  he  is 
sure  of  the  public  he  has  to  deal  with  or  he  despises 
them.  I  know  the  question  here  raised  is  very  un- 
wieldy, but  he  should  at  least  develop  it  a  little.  To 
refute  this  profound  historical  error,  or  to  administer 
the  antidote  to  persons  who  have  already  swallowed  the 
poison,  I  should  have  very  much  space  at  my  disposal, 
and  entertain  no  fear  of  having  already  abused  the  in- 


CATHOLICS  AND   CIVIL  LIBERTY.  133 

dulgence  of  the  reader  too  much.  I  must,  however, 
dispose  of  this  awkward  and  unjust  accusation. 

Protestant  countries  have  been  less  free  from  revo- 
lution and  anarchy  than  Catholic  countries.  England 
has  undergone  dreadful  revolutions  down  to  the  acces- 
sion of  the  house  of  Orange,  and  if  it  has  been  relatively 
peaceful  since  that  epoch,  it  is  at  the  cost  of  an  ab- 
solute religious  intolerance  with  regard  to  Catholics 
and  of  an  abominable  despotism  applied  to  the  Irish. 
The  Dutch  have  had  their  periods  of  anarchy  much 
oftener  than  the  Catholic  Belgians,  their  neighbors  of 
the  same  race,  and  they  have  found  calm,  which,  more- 
over, is  congenial  to  their  disposition,  only  in  the  haven 
of  the  stadtholderate.  As  to  the  Protestants  of  the 
North,  especially  the  Prussian  Lutherans,  they  have 
been  peaceful  until  1848,  like  the  Assyrians  or  Babylo- 
nians, because  they  were  crushed  under  the  most  op- 
pressive civil  despotism  of  which  modern  history  makes 
mention.  If  we  except  Geneva,  where  Calvinistic  ab- 
solutism has  flourished,  Switzerland  has  been,  in  gen- 
eral, a  land  of  moderate  civil  liberty,  until  the 
Sonderbund  war,  in  the  Protestant  as  well  as  in  the 
Catholic  cantons. 

I  will  say  nothing  of  Catholic  nations  before  the 
French  ^Revolution.  In  general,  since  the  sixteenth 
century,  these  nations  have,  in  my  opinion,  had  a  bad 
civil  government,  but  they  remained  faithful  to  order, 
discipline  and  the  established  authorities.  Preserved, 
during  two  hundred  years,  from  the  dangers  of  the 
[Reformation,  they  were  at  last  dragged  into  the  great 
movement  of  1789,  which  was  only  the  logical  devel- 


134  THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

opment  of  Protestantism.  Poland  was  the  only  ex- 
ception; but  we  must  not  forget  that  it  was  lain  in  wait 
for  like  a  prey  by  two  eagles,  the  one  white,  towards 
the  East,  and  the  other  black,  towards  the  West,  and 
thatthe  cry  of  one  of  its  magnates,  "  malo  periculosam 
libertatem  quam  otiosum  sermtium"*  was  a  cry  of 
defense  against  ravishers  who  finally  succeeded  in  their 
criminal  schemes. 

A  single  nominally  Protestant  country  has  resisted 
in  the  present  century  all  the  tendencies  to  anarchy, 
and  that  is  England,  whose  people  have  remained 
Christian,  and  whose  government  iS  the  only  one  that 
has,  since  the  Csesarism  of  the  Renaissance,  preserved 
the  type  of  the  ancient  Catholic  governments  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  For  my  own  part,  I  will  not  hesitate  to 
bestow  on  England  the  praises  that  are  due  to  it  :  on 
this  point  Catholics  will  owe  to  it  a  lasting  debt  of 
gratitude.  England  has  remained  for  them  a  model 
and  a  consolation — a  living  model  of  the  ancient  his- 
torical Catholic  institutions;  a  consolation,  because 
they  can  point  to  it  and  say  :  there  is  where  we  would 
all  be,  throughout  Europe,  without  the  excesses  of  the 
Renaissance,  the  hatred  of  the  sectaries  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  the  insolence  of  such  governments  as 
those  of  Louis  XIV, the  Regency,  and  Louis  XV. ,  the  cor- 
ruption of  our  Encyclopaedists,  the  revolutionary  theo- 
ries of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  the  Liberal  doc- 
trines of  the  nineteenth. 

I  will  say  nothing  of  Holland,  for  it  owes  the  bene- 

*"I  prefer  dangerous  liberty  to  peaceful  servitude." 


CATHOLICS  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTY.  135 

fits  of  its  peaceful  and  prosperous  state  as  much  to  its 
Catholic  subjects  as  to  its  Protestant  citizens,  and,  be- 
sides, the  Catholic  Belgians  deserve  as  much  merit,  in 
this  matter,  as  the  Protestant  Dutch. 

Switzerland,  the  United  States  of  North  America, 
and  Prussia  are  not  out  of  the  reach  of  the  dangers 
which  M.  de  Laveleye  points  out  :  the  United  States 
are  but  just  emerging  from  a  dreadful  civil  war  which 
may  begin  again  to-morrow  ;  Switzerland  is  plunged 
in  the  depths  of  anarchy  ;  and  Prussia  is  in  a  revolu- 
tionary state  that  will  terminate  in  a  manner  which 
God  alone  foresees. 

Let  us  speak  of  the  present  situation  of  South  Ame- 
rica, Spain  and  France  :  for  Italy,  in  M.  de  Laveleye's 
estimation,  has  entered  on  the  normal  path  to  salvation. 
Imperfectly  peopled,  violently  and  suddenly  torn  from 
the  European  governments  to  which  they  owe  their 
existence  and  by  which  they  were  badly  governed 
during  the  eighteenth  century,  thanks  to  the  com- 
plicity of  Liberals  like  Pombal  and  Aranda,  certain 
States  of  South  America  have  struggled  for  forty  years 
in  the  deadly  grasp  of  anarchy.  What  are  these 
States  ?  Mexico,  Venezuela,  and  the  Argentine  Re- 
public, which  are  governed  by  Liberals.  Chili,  Peru, 
Ecuador  and  Brazil  are  no  more  to  be  pitied  than  Vir- 
ginia or  Carolina.  I  do  not  pretend  that  everything 
which  takes  place  there  deserves  the  approbation  of 
the  wise  ;  but  you  would  not  dare  to  maintain  that  in 
the  country  of  the  Quakers  of  North  America,  public 
felicity  is  unchequered. 

Of  Spain  we  have  spoken  already.    What  we  shall 


136       THE  FUTUKE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

say  of  France  may,  moreover,  be  applied  to  the  land 
of  the  Cid. 

What  remains  of  M.  de  Laveleye's  wholesale  accu- 
sation ?  The  paragraph  relating  to  France,  the  land 
which  gave  birth  to  "  the  immortal  principles  of  '89," 
and  which  but  lately,  before  the  coming  of  Prince  Bis- 
marck, gave  the  signal  of  all  the  campaigns  directed 
against  the  Catholic  Church.  A  man  must  possess 
singular  audacity  or  profess  a  sovereign  contempt  for 
his  readers  who  would  attempt  to  maintain  that  the 
cause  of  the  revolutions  from  which  France,  "  the  eldest 
daughter  of  the  Church  of  Borne,  "is  suffering  should  be 
attributed  to  the  Church  and  to  Catholics.  The  French 
certainly  have,  on  the  whole,  remained  obstinately 
attached  to  the  faith  of  St.  Eemigius,  and  the  acknow- 
ledgment of  Christendom  has  ratified  the  eulogium  of 
their  heroic  actions  which  the  annalists  of  the  Middle 
Ages  had  expressed  under  this  proverbial  form,  Getta 
Dei  per  Francos,  comprising  under  this  latter  term 
not  only  the  French  properly  so-called,  but  the  Francs 
or  ancient  Lotharingians  and  even  all  the  Catholic  tribes 
that  settled  along  the  right  bank  of  the  Khine  as  far  as 
Friesland.  There  is  not  at  present  upon  the  earth  a 
Church  more  pure  in  doctrine,  more  united  in  faith, 
more  fruitful  in  works  than  this  great  Church  of 
France  ;  and  when  we  consider  the  place  it  holds  in 
the  "Universal  Church,  we  cannot  contemplate  without 
a  shudder  what  the  physiognomy  of  the  modern  world 
would  be  if  it  did  not  exist  or  should  suddenly  dis- 
appear. Without  permitting  our  fears  to  carry  us  so 
far,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  country  of  St.  Vincent 


CATHOLICS  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTY.  137 

de  Paul  gave  birth  to  Voltaire,  and  that  the  Little  Sis- 
ters of  the  Poor  are  less  honored  there  by  men  of  let- 
ters than  Madame  Sand.  Above  all  we  must  carefully 
distinguish  the  extraordinary  movement  to  which 
France  has  been  officially  obedient  since  the  Renaiss- 
ance.  Without  going  back  to  the  time  of  Philip  le 
Bel,  who  had  already  professed  the  doctrines  of  Dr. 
Talk,  and  to  the  author  of  the  second  part  of  the 
"Roman  de  la  Rose,"  Jean  de  Meung,  who,  according 
to  the  exquisite  remark  of  my  friend,  Leon  de  Monge, 
had  already  anticipated  the  writers  of  the  "  reptile 
press,"  we  can  assert  that  never  since  the  Reforma- 
tion has  France  had  a  government  strictly  faithful  to 
the  doctrines  of  the  civil-ecclesiastical  law  such  as  it  is 
taught  throughout  the  Universal  Church.  Not  to 
render  confused  so  simple  a  question  by  extending 
it,  let  us  ask  ourselves  what  has  been,  in  this  present 
century,  the  government  in  France  that  we  could  call 
"clerical,"  (I  take  this  word  in  its  good  sense,  in  con- 
trast, for  example,  with  a  "Gueux"  government,  as 
we  would  say  in  Belgium).  You  will,  perhaps,  an- 
swer by  mentioning  the  Restoration.  I  do  not  entirely 
admit  the  honor  people  would  confer  on  the  govern- 
ment of  Louis  XVIII.  and  Charles  X. ,  which  were  al- 
ways more  concerned  about  themselves  than  about  the 
honor  of  the  Church;  yet,  I  will  grant,  under  certain 
reserves,  that  the  Restoration,  as  a  government,  was  fa- 
vorable to  Catholic  interests ;  but  the  government  of 
the  Restoration  was,  before  that  of  Marshal 
McMahon,  one  of  the  best  that  France  has  seen, 
How  many  misfortunes  and  disasters  would  not  France 


138       THE  FUTUKE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

have  avoided  if  it  had  preserved,  developed  and  per- 
fected this  monarchical  constitution  on  the  basis  of  the 
most  evident  traditions  and  moral  interests  of  the 
country.  From  Louis  XYI.  to  Marshal  McMahon, 
except  the  little  bright. spot  of  the  [Restoration,  all  the 
governments  that  have  succeeded  each  other  in  France 
have  been  hostile  or  indifferent  to  Catholic  in- 
terests. The  civil  constitution  of  the  clergy, 
the  organic  articles,  the  imprisonment  of  Pope  Pius 
VI.,  the  carrying  off  of  Pius  VII. ,  the  greatest  evils 
which  the  pontificate  of  Pius  IX.  has  endured  are  the 
handiwork  of  the  rulers  of  France  ;  the  Government  of 
July  was  liberal ;  that  of  Napoleon  III.  was  the  god- 
father of  Count  Cavour  and  the  accomplice  of  Prince 
Bismarck ;  the  two  [Republics  of  1848  and  1870  led  to 
the  assassination  of  the  Archbishops  of  Paris,  Affre  and 
Darboy.  I  do  not  believe  that  even  the  silly  papers  of 
the  liberal  multitude  would  admit  that  it  was  Catholics 
that  guillotined  Louis  XVI. ,  proscribed  the  clergy  that 
refused  to  take  the  oath,  created  the  University  of 
France,  instituted  the  National  Guard,  brought  the 
Count  of  Montalembert  and  the  Pere  Lacordaire  before 
the  tribunal  of  the  peers,  and  shot  the  "hostages." 
M.  de  Tocqueville  has  resumed  the  labors  of  the  latter 
part  of  his  life  in  this  phrase  :  "  We  were  advancing 
when  the  French  Eevolution  came. "  In  spite  of  the  new 
and  bloody  experiences  of  the  present  century,  we  may 
say  of  France,  as  it  is  at  present,  that  it  is  advancing.  It 
is  advancing  in  such  a  way  that  its  enemies  are  not 
asleep.  As  to  French  civilization,  its  action  is  so  pow- 
erful that  it  is  within  its  orbit  that  M.  de  Laveleye 


CATHOLICS  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTY.  1?9 

goes  to  look  for  the  consecration  of  his  talents ; 
its  material  conquerors  themselves  experience  its  irre- 
sistible influence  : 

Graecia  capta  f erum  victorem  cepit.  * 
As  an  expounder  of  Protestant  ideas,  M.  de  Laveleye 
is,  moreover,  very  ungrateful  to  official  France.  It 
would  be  interesting,  in  effect,  to  study  the  following 
questions :  First,  what  would  become  of  Protestant- 
ism on  the  continent  and  of  the  Grand  Turk,  if  the 
crown  of  France,  instead  of  becoming,  at  the  most  im- 
portant junctures,  their  accomplice,  had  religiously 
united  itself  to  the  Emperor  to  fight  against  them. 
Secondly,  what  especially,  would  have  been  the  fate  of 
the  State  that  typifies  Lutheranism,  the  Electorate 
of  Brandenburg,  without  France  at  the  most  critical 
epochs  of  its  existence  ?  A  strange  monument  was  re- 
cently inaugurated  at  Ems  to  remind  future  genera- 
tions of  a  scene  which  did  not  take  place,  namely,  a 
scene  in  which  the  unfortunate  Count  Benedetti  is 
supposed  to  have  insulted  the  King  of  Prussia.  We 
know  that  this  pretended  insult  aided,  in  an  admirable 
manner,  the  long  premeditated  design  of  Bismarck's 
policy.  They  would  engrave  on  this  monument  the 
names  of  the  heroes  of  the  scene  :  King  William, 
Count  Benedetti,  Count  von  Lehndorf,  and  Prince  An- 
tony Badzivill,  the  King's  two  aides-de-camp.  His 
majesty  was  formally  opposed  to  it  on  account  of  its 
untruthfulness.  To  get  rid  of  this  embarrassment  the 
promoters  of  this  monument  should  have  simply  in- 

*  "  Conquered  Greece  took  the  fierce  victor  captive." 


140       THE  FUTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

scribed  on  the  marble  the  names  of  Francis  I,  Cardinal 
Richelieu  and  Napoleon  III.  Cardinal  Richelieu 
;vould  even  deserve  to  have  his  statue  erected  in  front 
of  the  Branderiburgerthor  at  Berlin. 

It  is  understood,  then,  in  the  deductive  school,  that 
the  nations  corrupted  by  the  Catholic  Church  are  con- 
demned to  political  absolutism,  moral  slavery  and  an 
incurable  poverty.  In  this  point  of  view,  however, 
Italy  and  Belgium,  says  M.  de  Laveleye,  appear  to  be 
more  "happy  than  France  and  Spain.  But  IB  liberty 
definitively  established  in  these  fcwo  countries  ?  Well- 
meaning  men  doubt  it."  What  liberty?  The  author 
has  forgotten  to  tell  us  ;  but  he  lets  us  guess  it  a  little 
farther  on.  However  this  may  be,  an  honest  anony- 
mous gentleman  in  an  Italian  journal,  II  Diritto,  has 
written  an  article  entitled  Italia  Nera.  In  this  article 
he  says  :  "  The  peoples  of  the  Papal  religion  are  al- 
ready dying  or  about  to  die."  The  anonymous  writer 
then  tells  us  that  all  will  go  on  well  in  new  Italy,  whilst 
the  Catholics  will  derive  no  benefit  from  the  common 
political  liberties  ;  but  the  day  on  which  these  wretch- 
es will  take  seriously  to  heart  the  principles  of  the 
constitution  which  has  been  imposed  upon  them,  and 
will  no  longer  keep  aloof,  then  "will  be  manifested 
the  incompatibility  between  modern  civilization  and 
the  ideas  of  Rome."  The  artless  reader  will  ask  him- 
self :  But  what  does  this  good  fellow  mean  ?  He  pre- 
tends that  the  peoples  who  profess  the  religion  of  the 
Pope  are  dead  or  are  going  to  die ;  and  then,  all  on  a 
sudden,  he  immediately  perceives  a  people  of  this  per- 
nicious species,  even  in  Italy,  Italia  Nera  ;  it  keep* 


CATHOLICS  AND   CIVIL  LIBERTY.  141 

still,  it  is  true,  like  a  gloomy  people,  but  he  is  afraid 
that  it  will  throw  off  its  indifference  which  is  only 
apparent ;  what  do  I  say,  they  are  certain  that  this  dead 
or  dying  one  is  going  to  put  himself  in  motion,  and 
then,  just  heaven,  all  will  be  lost.  The  reasoning  of 
this  well-meaning  Italian  is  truly  worthy  of  the  "  phy- 
siican  m  spite  of  himself."  "  Palsanguenne,  here's  a 
physician  who  pleases  me ;  I  think  he'll  succeed,  for 
he's  a  buffoon." 

But  let  us  not  laugh,  for  the  subject  of  itself  is  hard- 
ly laughable.  What  will  "  soon"  come  to  pass  in  It- 
aly (we  accept  the  augury  of  it)  "  is  exactly  what  is 
passing  in  Belgium  -  since  1840."  MM.  Gladstone, 
Bluntschli,  and  de  Savornin  have  asked  themselves, 
why  only  since  1840.  They  will  experience  other  dis- 
appointments besides.  In  effect,  everybody  is  not  yet 
convinced  that  the  Catholics  of  Belgium  are  dying  or 
'  about  to  die.  M.  de  Laveleye  is  too  intelligent  to  deny 
the  vitality  a±id  virile  energy  of  his  Catholic  fellow  cit- 
izens who  practise  seriously  and  sincerely  the  repre- 
sentative regime,  who  endure,  without  an  expression 
of  discontent,  the  shock  of  all  the  consequences  of  the 
most  extended  system  of  liberties  that  reigns  in  the 
modern  world,  and  who  are  no  more  deficient  in  intel- 
lect or  means  than  the  liberals  or  Protestants  of  the 
past,  present  or  future. 

How  is  he  going  to  get  out  of  this  difficulty  ?  In  the 
following  manner : 

' '  Recently  one  of  the  authors  of  the  Belgian  Consti- 
tution, and  the  most  eminent  of  them  perhaps,  told 
me,  while  his  soul  was  filled  with  sorrow  :  *  "We  be- 


142       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

lieved  that  to  establish  liberty  it  was  sufficient  to  pro- 
claim it,  by  separating  the  Church  from  the  State.  I 
am  beginning  to  believe  that  we  were  deceived.  The 
Church,  supporting  herself  on  the  rural  districts,  wish- 
es to  impose  her  absolute  power.  The  large  cities, 
gained  over  to  the  modern  ideas,  will  not  allow  them- 
selves to  be  enslaved  without  trying  to  defend  them- 
selves. We  are  drifting  towards  a  civil  war,  as  in 
France.  We  are  already  in  a  revolutionary  state.  The 
future  appears  to  me  to  be  big  with  troubles.  The 
last  elections  have  begun  to  make  the  danger  apparent. 
The  elections  for  the  Chambers  have  strengthened  the 
clerical  party,  whilst  those  for  ,the  communes  have 
given  the  power  to  the  Liberals  in  all  the  large  cities. 
Thus  the  antagonism  between  the  cities  and  rural  dis- 
tricts, one  of  the  causes  of  the  civil  war  in  France, 
also  shows  itself  in  Belgium,  As  long  as  the  govern- 
ment will  remain  in  the  hands  of  prudent  men,  more 
disposed  to  serve  their  country  than  to  obey  their  bish- 
ops, serious  disorders  are  not  to  be  feared.  But  if  the 
fanatics  who  openly  accept  the  Syllabus  as  a  political 
programme  should  come  into  power,  terrible  shocks 
will  be  the  consequence.  Recently  they  were  near 
bringing  civil  war  and  foreign  invasion  upon  us.' " 

I  will  put  aside  the  commonplace  about  the  Syllabus, 
which  M.  de  Laveleye  has  evidently  never  read,  and  I 
will  take  no  account,  against  the  honorable  writer,  of 
the  argument  built  upon  the  recent  thieatening  note 
of  Prince  Bismarck,  and  to  which  our  parliament  ly;s 
already  unanimously  clone  justice.  I  will  confine  ii.y- 
*elf  to  the  basis  of  this  truly  strange  argumentation. 


CATHOLICS   AND   CIVIL  LIBERTY.'  143 

It  is  an  acknowledgement  of  powerlessness.  In  his 
"  Histoire  de  la  Revolution"  M.  Quinet  seesbnt  two 
ways  of  dealing  with  religious  questions  :  "  either  in- 
terdiction or  liberty,'*  and  he  shows  that  liberty  is  of 
no  avail.  There  remains,  then,  interdiction.  "If 
Luther  and  Calvin,"  he  says,  "had  contented  them- 
selves with  establishing  liberty  of  worship  without 
adding  anything,  there  never  would  have  been  the 
shadow  of  a  religious  revolution  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury." Do  you  understand?  In  the  letter  which  the 
same  writer  addressed  on  one  occasion  to  M.  Sue,  "On 
the  Keligious  and  Moral  Situation  of  Europe,"  he  says 
plainly  :  "  Brute  force  is  the  only  means  that  has  suc- 
ceeded in  annihilating  an  ancient  form  of  belief. "  In 
a  recent  article  published  under  the  title  of  "  The  Prin- 
ciples of  Liberty  in  Political  Matters,"  byM.  H.  Perga- 
meni,  a  talented  young  man,  in  the  Revue  de  Belgique . 
(October  1875),  the  periodical  of  which  M.  de  Laveleye 
is  one  of  the  editors  and  the  principal  contributor,  we 
read  a  brutal,  but  clear  and  frank,  apology  for  these 
anti-Christian  doctrines.  The  author,  following  in  the 
footsteps  of  MM.  Quinet,  Sue,  and  an  eccentric  Eng- 
lishman, Mr.  J.  F.  Stephen,  brings  to  task  the  doc- 
trinal Liberals,  the  Manchester  school,  the  Unionists 
and  the  Belgian  Constitution.  He  treats  political  lib- 
erty as  an  inefficacious  means,  a  superannuated  instru- 
ment, a  false  idol,  a  dotard.  It  is  mockery  to  leave  lib- 
erty to  our  opponents.  Liberty,  he  says  with  a  caii- 
did  assurance,  is  "  a  simply  practical  notion,  a  result 
of  race,  climate  and  civilization."  The  author  also  de- 
serves to  be  ranked  among  the  Dumber  of  involuntary 


144  THE  FUTUBE  OF  CATHOLIO  PEOPLES. 

apologists.  Bead,  in  effect,  this  negation  of  certi- 
tude : 

"If  we  were  ruled  here  below  by  aa  infallible  and 
superior  law,  if,  anywhere  in  the  heavens,  the  book  of 
truth  were  left  wide  open  before  us,  if  we  could  easily 
read  what  is  conformable  with  and  what  is  contrary  to 
the  ideal  of  society,  the  problem  of  truth  would  be 
speedily  solved.  All  that  would  be  conformable  to 
this  social  ideal  would  be  allowable  and  free,  and  all 
that  would  be  contrary  would  be  prohibited. 

'  'Alas  !  such  is  not  the  case.  Abandoned  children, 
we  have  not  above  us  an  infallible  master  to  lead  us 
by  the  hand  and  say  to  us  :  This  is  the  truth.  The 
truth,  it  is  we  ourselves  who  create  it ;  the  social  ne- 
cessities, it  is  we  who  define  them. 

"How  ?  By  brute  force;  it  is  brute  force  alone  that 
in  this  world  creates  and  preserves,  it  is  it  that  fixes 
the  social  necessities  and  the  rules  of  law;  for  a  law 
without  force  is  only  a  word.  Whatever  people  may 
say,  not  only  does  might  surpass  right, — which  does 
not  signify  much, — but  might  is  right." 

Farther  on,  M.  H.  Pergameni  repeats  this  proposi- 
tion of  Mr.  Stephen :  "The  question  of  knowing 
whether  liberty  is  good  or  evil  is  as  illogical  as  that  of 
knowing  whether  fire  is  good  or  bad. "  There  is  cer- 
tainly a  true  meaning  in  this  aphorism,  and  Catholics 
will  not  contradict  it  :  but  in  the  mouth,  or  from  the 
pen,  of  him  who  denies  all  objective  authority  upon 
earth,  such  a  proclamation  of  principle  is  outrageous; 
let  the  author  permit  me  to  say  so  without  believing 
that  I  mean  to  offend  him  personally. 


CATHOLICS  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTY.  145 

I  add  that,  admitting  M.  Pergameni's  starting 
point,  his  work  is  a  little  pearl  of  logic  and  misguided 
common  sense.  But  his  starting  point  is  absolutely 
the  same  as  that  of  M.  de  Laveleye.  Here  is  the  con- 
clusion of  M.  Pergameni's  pleading  : 

"Let  us  not  lose  our  time,  then,  in  trying  to  con- 
vince our  adversaries  ;  the  experience  of  centuries 
could  alone  decide  which  of  us  is  in  the  right,  which 
of  us  is  nearest  to  the  social  ideal.  We  believe  we 
are  right  and  that  suffices ;  henceforward  our  duty  is 
to  try  and  make  the  ideas  we  believe  correct  to  pre- 
vail, without  disturbing  ourselves  about  liberty. 

"Moreover,  this  tendency  to  set  liberty  aside  as  an 
auxiliary  in  the  social  contest,  is  becoming  more  and 
more  apparent  in  proportion  as  conservative  opin- 
ion is  transformed  and  rallies  around  this  old- 
est and  most  solid  religious  edifice  raised  by 
men,  the  Boman  Catholic  Church.  Germany,  Switz- 
erland and  Italy  have  set  us  this  example;  let  us  fol- 
low it  if  we  wish  to  be  saved. 

"Without  doubt,  in  certain  countries,  as  in  England 
and  in  the  United  States,  for  example,  these  questions 
appear  still  farther  from  being  stated  so  clearly,  and 
the  liberty  of  association  and  worship  is  there  almost 
unbounded.  But  premonitory  commotions  are  already 
agitating  this  surface  which  is  apparently  so  calm,  and 
the  moment  is  approaching  when  England  and  the 
United  States  will  have  to  come  face  to  face  with  this 
redoubtable  problem  of  religious  liberty.  They  will  do 
so,  we  have  no  doubt,  witji  all  the  practical  common- 
sense  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and  will  not  amuse  them- 


146       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES, 

selves  with  discussing  whether  such  or  such  a  measure 
of  defense,  the  suppression  of  the  religious  orders,  for 
example,  is  a  blow  at  the  liberty  of  association.  Ne- 
cessity is  law,  salus  populi  supremo,  lex,  these  are 
old  axioms  which  the  human  race  will  never  repudiate. 

' '  With  us,  as  well  as  in  France,  the  situation  is  much 
more  critical;  we  are  in  the  heat  of  the  contest,  and 
Ultramontanism  has  set  itself  with  an  alarming  ardor 
to  its  work  of  absorption. 

"What  will  we  do?  Will  we  continue  to  fold  our 
arms  and  chant  daily  the  litanies  of  liberty,  or  will  we 
start  up  with  a  manly  heart  and  tryHo  muzzle  the  Ro- 
man wolf  ? 

"And  by  what  means?  Will  it  suffice,  as  many 
think  it  will,  to  take  away  from  the  Church  what  we 
call  its  privileges,  and  to  realize  in  an  absolute  manner 
the  formula  of  a  free  Church  in  a  free  State  ?  We  say  it 
with  an  absolute  conviction  that  that  would  be  on  our 
part  to  commit  suicide. 

"No,  if  the  Belgian  Liberals  wish  to  save  their  coun- 
try and  their  ideas,  they  must  have  recourse  to  more 
energetic  means,  they  must  work  without  relaxation 
for  the  suppression  of  convents  and  religious  orders, 
they  must  wrest  education  from  the  hands  of  the 
clergy,  they  must  put  a  stop,  by  severe  and  radical 
measures,  to  the  unheard  of  development  of  miracles, 
pilgrimages  and  stigmatisations  which  are  a  scandal 
and  a  shame  to  our  country. 

"What  will  these  measures  be  ?  Undoubtedly  there 
is  no  question  of  making  martyrs.  We  are  no  longer 
in  the  times  when  people  were  burned  and  tortured  in 


CAIHOIiIOS  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTY.  147 

the  name  of  a  political  opinion;  the  manners  of  hu- 
manity are  changed,  and  the  man  of  the  nineteenth 
century  no  longer  possesses  the  undaunted  courage  of 
his  ancestors;  but  if  repression  has  lost  its  character  of 
ferocity,  it  exists  none  the  less,  for  it  is  the  sanction  of 
right.  Imprisonment,  fines  and  banishment  are  legal 
arms,  and  why  not  make  use  of  them  ? 

"I  reptat  that  liberty,  toleration;  free  discussion 
and  the  innocent  railleries  of  our  followers  of  Voltaire 
will  not  gain  for  us  an  inch  of  ground  in  this  contest. 
On  the  contrary,  the  more  we  speak  of  liberty  and 
good-naturedly  amuse  ourselves  by  turning  miracles 
into  ridicule,  the  more  will  the  superstition  extend  it- 
self among  our  people;  it  is  not  with  fillips  that  we 
can  storm  a  granite  fortress. 

"If  we  wish  to  do  our  work  seriously,  we  ought  to 
forget  the  doctrines  of  1830,  and  put  aside  our  fine 
dreams  of  liberty.  Who  denies  that  liberty  is  some- 
times good  ?  But  social  life  is  much  more  precious,  and 
to  preserve  it  such  as  we  understand  it,  we  must  know 
how  to  use  constraint.  All  our  laws  are  a  perpetual 
example  of  it,  for  they  all  encroach  upon  the  domain 
of  liberty;  let  us  yet  restrict  this  domain  where  it  in- 
terferes with  our  social  ideal,  and  we  will  act  logically, 
as  men  ought  to  act. 

"The  principles  which  ought  to  guide  us  in  this  con- 
test are  those  of  legitimate  defense  and  social  preserva- 
tion; they  are  also  those  of  human  solidarity,  too  much 
neglected  by  the  Liberals  of  every  country.  It  is  high 
time  that  men  of  progress  should  seriously  concern 
themselves  about  the  poorer  classes,  these  laborers 


148  THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

whose  number  is  increasing  everv  day  to  an  alarming 
proportion.  In  this  respect  the  clericals  are  ahead  of  us 
for  a  long  time  past,  after  their  own  manner;  this  tute- 
lage of  the  little  ones,  whom  the  Liberals  disdainfully 
neglected,  they  have  taken  in  hand;  they  have  made 
themselves  the  counsellors,  masters  and  consolers  of 
the  people.  Let  us  do  likewise;  let  us  go  to  the  disin- 
herited, let  us  protect  them  against  the  enterprises  of  the 
Church,  should  it  even  be  at  the  expense  of  the  liberty 
of  association.  Finally,  let  us  remember  4hat  the 
great  law  of  all  human  society  is  the  contest  of  con- 
trary forces,  that  a  political  party  sustains  itself  only 
by  contest,  that  it  is  never  allowed  for  it  to  fall  asleep 
and  leave  the  battle-field  free  to  its  adversaries,  and 
that  the  true  service  of  all  those  who  believe  in  an 
idea  is  that  of  one  of  the  champions  of  liberalism, 
Marnix  de  Sainte  Aldegonde:  Let  there  be  repose  else- 
where !" 

Undoubtedly,  M.  H.  Pergameni  might  employ  the 
talents  which  God  has  given  him  in  the  service  of  a 
better  cause  ;  but  no  one  can  dispute  that,  in  this 
rather  savage  energy  there  reigns  a  certain  sincerity. 
Nevertheless,  the  young  writer  has  been  thrown  over- 
board by  the  lords  of  the  Liberal  admiralty.  The 
Echo  du  Parlement,  in  which  he  published  a  novel, 
treats  him  as  a  romancer,  and  compares  him  to  the 
Croix,  crux  episcoporum.  The  Independance  calls 
him  a  colt.  We  do  not  see,  it  says,  "  the  necessity  of 
discussing  the  violences  of  the  young  publicist  of  the 
Revue  de  Belgique.  They  are  the  playful  flings  of  an 
escaped  colt  that  is  sowing  his  wild  oats.  It  is  not 


CATHOLICS  AND  CIVIL  LIBEBTY.  149 

bad  to  have  them  to  lose.     Yet  he  should  not  squander 
them  too  wildly." 

Finally  M.  de  Laveleye  himself,  somewhat  too  sur- 
prised at  the  sensation  this  "  frolicking  "  has  created, 
thought  he  should,  in  the  name  of  the  committee  of 
the  Revue,  write  to  the  Journal  de  Oand  a  letter  in 
which  we  read  as  follows  under  the  date  of  the  21st 
of  October  : 

"  The  system  defended  by  M.  Pergameni  is  not  ac- 
cepted by  any  of  the  members  of  the  committee.  But 
it  has  numerous  partisans  in  England,  Italy,  France 
and  particularly  in  Germany,  and,  let  it  be  well  under- 
stood, it  will  rally  to  itself  still  more  in  proportion  as 
the  excessive  pretensions  of  the  clergy  will  provoke  a 
more  ardent  opposition.  This  opinion  representing 
thus  one  of  the  important  shades  of  the  anti-clerical 
movement,  it  has  appeared  useful  to  us  that  it  should 
be  exposed,  so  that  people  could  appreciate  it,  and  if 
need  be,  combat  it." 

It  appears  to  me  that  this  disavowal  was  not  neces- 
sary :  M.  Pergameni  says  nothing  which  M.  de  Lavel- 
eye does  not  say  ;  only  he  says  it  more  clearly.  In 
his  letter  to  M.  Sue  already  referred  to,  M.  Quinet 
acknowledges  that  he  is  a  little  embarrassed  in  trying 
to  put  his  doctrine  into  form  ;  he  enunciates  it, 
he  says,  only  by  enervating  the  words.  M.  de  Lavel- 
eye experiences  the  same  embarrassment.  But  M. 
Pergameni  has  not  enervated  the  words.  That  is  the 
only  difference  which  I  perceive  between  the  two 
theses  sustained  by  the  two  fellow  laborers.  I  would 
be  happy  to  learn  that  I  am  deceived  ;  but  then  I 


150       THE  FUTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

would  accuse  M.  de  Laveleye  of  a  flagrant  inconsis- 
tency. If  "  the  most  eminent  of  the  authors  of  the 
Belgian  constitution"  (we  regret  that  we  have  not  made 
his  acquaintance)  begins  to  believe  that  he  has  been 
deceived,  in  generously  "  according  "  civil  liberties 
to  Catholics,  what,  then,  is  the  regime  which  he 
would  apply  to  them,  if  he  were  master  ?  What,  then, 
are  the  "  terrible  shocks  "  which  await  the  Catholics  ? 
Whence  will  the  shocks  come  ?  All  these  questions 
are  left  by  M.  de  Laveleye  in  a  literary  darkness  from 
which  M.  Pergameni  has  extricated  them. 

The  advocate  X.  Olin  and  Professor  G.  Tiberghien 
have  no  desire  to  accept  the  responsibility  of  M.  Per- 
gameni's  article.  The  former,  taking  his  observations 
from  the  historical  standpoint  of  our  parliamentary 
liberal  doctrinaries,  protests  with  much  energy,  we 
must  acknowledge,  against  M.  Pergameni's  doctrine, 
but  he  does  not  essentially  refute  it.  In  effect,  this 
doctrine  is  put  in  practice  in  Prussia  and  Switzerland, 
two  countries  which  "  are  marching  at  the  head  of 
modern  civilization,"  and  if  they  wish  to  make  short 
work  of  "  clerical  routine,"  even  "  rational  "  argu- 
ments are  not  wanting  to  legitimatize  the  employment 
of  force  in  the  service  of  political  success.  Ancient 
society,  on  the  eve  of  the  ^Redemption,  and  at  the 
apogee  of  its  civilization,  threw  itself  into  the  abyss  of 
Csesarism.  Virgil  and  Horace  were  no  simpletons  ; 
and  yet  this  regime  was  not  displeasing  to  them. 
Aristotle  was  the  preceptor  of  the  son  of  Philip  of 
Macedon,  whose  system  of  absolutism  was  not  repug- 
nant to  him.  Prince  Bismarck,  who  realizes  the  pre- 


CATHOLICS  AND  CIVIL  LIBEETY.  151 

ceptsof  M.  Pergameni,  is  honored  as  one  of  the  great- 
est men  of  our  time,  and  I  see  the  most  learned 
jurists,  the  most  renowned  men  of  letters,  and  what 
remains  in  Germany  of  philosophers,  weaving  crowns 
for  him. 

M.  Tiberghien  is  more  technical  than  M.  Olin,  but  I 
venture  to  say  that  he  is  less  convincing ;  he  seeks  to 
remedy  M.  Pergameni's  errors  on  the  matter  of  liberty, 
and  he  addresses  to  him  on  this  subject  a  little  pater- 
nally philosophical  admonition.  The  reader  has  no 
desire  that  I  should  oblige  him  to  follow  me  through 
the  digression  into  which  I  would  be  drawn,  if  I  wished 
in  my  turn  to  criticize  the  theory  of  M.  Tiberghien. 
Let  us  say,  however,  that  the  latter  does  honor  to  his 
profession  in  maintaining  a  spiritualistic  doctrine ;  but 
his  a  priori  definition  of  liberty,  his  somewhat  arbi- 
trary determination  of  the  idea  of  right,  his  theory  on 
civil  and  political  liberty,  which  he  deduces  exclusively 
from  the  notion  of  moral  liberty,  cannot  be  received 
without  philosophical  reserve,  and  gives  rise  to  many 
rational  objections.  We  may  profess  the  soundest 
philosophical  doctiine  on  moral  liberty,  whilst  not  ad- 
mitting as  an  absolute  principle  (as  we  must  do  in  phi- 
losophy) the  liberty  of  worship,  and  yet  be  perfectly 
honest  men ;  and  in  the  same  way  we  may  doctrinally 
define  the  liberty  of  worship  as  a  pestilence,  whilst  sin 
cerely  and  legitimately,  but  civilly,  respecting  a  legis- 
lation which  would  tolerate  all  forms  of  worship  This 
is  the  thesis  and  hypothesis  of  Catholics.  M.  Olin  does 
not  admit  the  absolute  liberty  of  worship.  For  what 
reason  ?  M.  Tiberghien  pretends  that  it  is  only  sophists 


152      THE  FUTUKE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

who  sustain  absolute  liberty.  "Liberty,"  he  says, 
"could  not  be  absolute  for  man,  since  the  liberty  of 
each  member  of  society  finds  its  limit  in  the  liberty 
of  all  the  others.  Liberty  has  its  limits ;  does  that 
prevent  it  from  being  a  benefit  ?  It  is  a  benefit  since 
it  is  a  right. "  This  reasoning  is  faulty  in  its  founda- 
tion ;  it  confounds  moral  and  political  liberty,  the  ab- 
solute with  the  relative,  and  it  overturns  the  notion  of 
good ;  liberty  is  not  a  benefit  because  it  is  a  right ;  lib- 
erty, on  the  contrary,  can  become  a  right  only  for  the 
realization  of  good. 

If  I  were  in  M.  Pergameni's  place  I  would  victori- 
ously answer  all  this  argumentation.  Who  will  define  the 
limits  of  civil  liberty  (let  us  clearly  understand  each  oth- 
er on  the  meaning  of  the  words,and  not  confound, as  M. 
Tiberghien  does,  moral  with  civil  liberty)?  I,  M. 
Tiberghien  will  reply.  We,  cry  out  the  friends  of  M. 
Olin.  Why  could  not  MM.  Stephen ,  Carteret,  Bismarck 
and  Pergameni  reply,  in  their  turn,  it  is  we?  I  defy 
M.  Tiberghien  to  show  that  the  encyclicals  Mirari  vos 
and  Quanta  cura  are  philosophically  inferior  to  his 
subjective  and  uncertain  theories.  I  say  philosophi- 
cally, leaving  theology  to  shallow  minds  like  those  of 
"the  clericals," 

This  is  too  much  on  this  subject.  It  is  time  to  con- 
clude. 

On  the  whole,  then,  Catholic  nations  are  dead  or  are 
going  to  die;  but  as  long  as  they  are  not  yet,  per- 
chance, buried,  take  care  lest  you  grant  them  any  lib- 
erties which  are  legitimate  only  for  Liberals  and  Pro- 
testants; "experience  has  shown  and  will  show  more 


CATHOLICS  AND   CIVIL  LIBERTY.  153 

clearly  every  day  that  on  the  gronnd  of  absolute  liber- 
ty, free-thought  cannot  contend  against  Catholicism." 

Thus,  on  one  sine,  they  are  seeking  to  propagate 
this  belief,  against  the  history  of  the  past  and  the  facts 
of  the  present,  that  the  souls  of  Catholics  are  relig- 
iously corrupted,  that  they  are  slaves  politically,  and 
that  they  are  economically  condemned  to  hard  labor  and 
poverty;  then  when  it  has  been  shown,  as  in  Belgium, 
that  such  a  thesis  is  radically  false  and  unsustainable, 
they  trick  themselves  up  on  some  other  point  and  pro- 
claim that  these  same  Catholics  ought  to  be  excluded 
from  a  share  in  the  benefits  of  the  civil  liberty  of  the 
common  law.  On  one  side  they  state,  with  a  pretend- 
ed sorrow,  that  they  are  incapable  of  living;  on  the 
other,  "their  souls  filled  with  sadness,"  they  condemn 
them  to  death,  because  they  possess  too  much  life. 
If  I  wished  to  qualify  such  a  doctrine  with  a  single 
word,  I  would  say  that  it  is  political  pharisaism,  in- 
spired at  the  same  time  by  hatred  of  the  Church  and 
contempt  of  civil  liberty. 

M.  de  Laveleye  then  ascends  the  Capitol  to  give 
thanks  to  the  gods  in  these  terms  : 

"For  every  man  who  wishes  to  scrutinize  the  facts 
without  prejudice,  it  remains,  then,  an  established 
fact  that  the  Reformation  is  more  favorable  than  Ca- 
tholicism to  the  development  of  nations.  We  must 
now  examine  into  the  causes  of  this  fact.  I  believe 
that  it  is  not  difficult  to  point  them  out. " 

We  will  follow  him  to  verify  these  assertions. 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

CATHOLIC   COUNTRIES  AND  EDUCATION. 

Education  is  not  in  It&elf  a  Source  of  Material  Prosperity- 
False  Conclusions  that  are  often  Drawn  from  the  Condition 
of  Public  Instruction  in  a  Country  as  regards  Political  In- 
fluence—Primary  Education  in  Belgium— In  Prussia — The 
Organization  of  Primary  Education  does  not  date  from  the 
Eef  ormation — Free  Examination  in  Prussia. 

After  having  vainly  tried  to  prove  that  the  Eef  orma- 
tion is  "more  favorable  than  Catholicism  to  the  de- 
velopment of  nations,"  M.  de  Laveleye  looks  for  the 
causes  of  this  imaginary  fact.  The  first  of  these  causes 
would  be  education,  which  is,  in  his  opinion,  more 
complete  in  Protestant  countries ;  and  by  education  he 
understands  particularly  the  modest,  scientific  and 
literary  baggage  which  one  carries  away  with  him  from 
the  primary  school.  Saxony,  Denmark,  Sweden  and 
Prussia  march  at  the  head  of  nations  "  without,  or  al- 
most without,  illiterate  people,"  whilst  the  Catholic 
countries,  Belgium,  France,  Spain  and  Portugal  are 
stagnating  in  invincible  ignorance.  Yes,  invincible ; 
for  "  it  is  all  very  fine  for  Catholic  States  to  make  in- 
struction obligatory,  like  Italy,  or  to  expend  much 
money  for  this  purpose,  like  Belgium ;  they  are  not 
succeeding  in  dispelling  ignorance."  England,  where 
primary  instruction  is  little  more  complete  than  in  Por- 
tugal, comes  to  derange  the  apparent  regularity  of  this 
syllogism.  Why?  "Probably  because  the  Anglican 
Church  is,  among  the  forms  of  the  reformed  worship, 


CATHOLIC  COUNTRIES  AND  EDUCATION.      155 

that  winch  most  closely  resembles  the  Church  of 
Rome."  This  adverb  of  probability  should  in  a  slight 
degree  flatter  the  self-love  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  the  au- 
tKor's  patron  in  England.  M.  de  Laveleye  might 
put  Holland  alongside  of  Great  Britain.  As  regards 
Switzerland,  the  "  primary  "  facts  would  there  be  of  an 
irresistible  eloquence  ;  the  Latin,  but  Protestant  can- 
tons of  Neufchatel,  Vaud  and  Geneva  would  be  in  this 
respect  on  a  level  with  the  Germanic  cantons  of  Zurich 
and  Berne,  and  they  would  be  superior  to  those  of 
Ticino,  the  Valais  and  Lucerne.  The  general  cause  of 
this  extraordinary  contrast  would  be  the  first  and  last 
word  of  Dr.  Luther:  Instruct  the  children.  Protestants 
ought  all  know  how  to  read,  since  the  reformed 
worship  reposes  on  a  book,  the  Bible,  whilst  among 
Catholics,  "  reading  is  the  way  which  leads  to  heresy." 
Moreover,  and  to  say  it  all.  the  organization  of  popular 
instruction  dates  from  the  Reformation.  "Education 
being  very  favorable  to  the  practice  of  political  liberty 
and  to  the  production  of  riches,  and  Protestantism 
favoring  the  diffusion  of  education,  there  is  then  a 
manifest  cause  for  the  superiority  of  Protestant  States." 

The  whole  of  this  reasoning  is  contrary  not  only  to 
reality  but  even  to  the  economical  thesis  of  the 
author.  "Man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by 
every  word  that  proceedeth  from  the  mouth  of  God." 
Everybody  knows  that  riches,  in  the  vulgar  sense  of 
the  word,  are  not  in  general  the  appanage  of  scholars 
or  well  educated  men. 

Sfcultitiam  patiuntur  opes. 

If  I  meant  to  be  indiscreet,  how  many  simpletons 


156  THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOMO  PEOPLES. 

could  I  not  point  out  around  me  who  have  become  ex- 
ceedingly rich  and  who  hardly  know  how  to  sign  their 
names.  Who  was  the  intelligent  man  that  said,  "he 
is  as  stupid  as  a  millionaire  ?' '  '  Tor  what  shall  it  profit  a 
man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and  suffer  the  loss  of  his 
soul  ?"  It  is  not  riches,it  is  not  even  knowledge  that  ele- 
vates nations,  it  is  justice.  Justitia  elevat  gentes.  In 
Athens,  the  most  elegant  of  republics,  did  all  the 
electors  of  the  time  of  Aristophanes  know  how  to  read 
and  write  ?  Was  it  primary  education  that  made  the 
fortunes  of  Tyre  and  of  Carthage  ?  When  ancient 
Rome  was  the  political  mistress  of  the  world,  were  the 
compatriots  of  Ovid,  Horace  and  Virgil  all  "normal- 
ists  ?"  You  acknowledge  yourself  that  England  is  one 
of  the  foremost  political  societies  of  the  modern 
world,  although  it  is  one  of  the  last  on  the  scale  of 
primary  education.  And  is  not  Kussia,  the  actual  ar- 
biter of  the  peace  of  Europe,  in  the  "primary"  rela- 
tion the  last  of  States  ? 

The  consul  who  reduced  the  fatherland  of  Plato  and 
Pindar  to  the  condition  of  a  B-oman  province  was  a 
boor.  How  many  pedants  could  we  not  point  out 
among  those  who  bore  from  one  end  of  Europe  to  the 
other  the  standard  of  the  "immortal  principles 
of  '89."  You  say,  "it  is  the  schoolmaster  who  has 
triumphed  at  Sedan ;"  who,  then,  formerly  triumphed 
at  Jena?  Obligatory  instruction  existed  in  Prussia 
long  before  1789,  and  it  did  not  prevent  that  State 
from  being  politically  humiliated  from  the  time  of 
the  retreat  from  Champagne,  under  the  Prince  of  Co- 
burg,  until  1813;  and  when  Napoleon  I.  occupied 


CATHOLIC  COUNTKIES  AND  EDUCATION.  157 

Berlin,  he  carried  off  the  sword  of  Frederic  II.,  ex- 
claiming :  "This  is  all  that  Prussia  is  worth." 

No,  the  quality  of  Catholic  does  not  condemn  us  to 
political  failure.  Unfortunately,  also,  pedagogy  is 
powerless  against  artillery  and  even  against  cuirassiers. 
The  general  argumentation  of  M.  de  Laveleye  does 
not,  therefore,  attain  its  end ;  on  the  contrary,  it  con- 
firms my  Catholic  thesis. 

The  details  of  this  argumentation  do  not  any  better 
withstand  free  examination. 

According  to  the  educational  statistics*,  the  country 
that  is  farthest  advanced  on  the  scale  of  primary  in- 
struction, is  Sweden,  of  which  the  civilized  districts 
are  almost  on  a  level  with  certain  districts  of  our  pro- 
vinces of  Luxemburg,  Limburg  and  Namur.  In  spite 
of  the  secular  Schultzwang  of  Prussia,  the  monarchy 
of  Frederic  H.  is  not  so  far  advanced  as  our  arron- 
dissement  of  Arlon,  which  is  under  the  administration 
of  M.  J.  P.  Nothomb,  the  commissary  of  the  king. 

This  perfection  of  our  primary  instruction  is  even 
general  in  our  Luxemburg,  my  native  country.  In 
his  discourse  at  the  opening  of  the  session  of  the  pro- 
vincial council,  M.  Vandamme,  the  governor,  said  in 
1872  : 

"  Luxemburg  counts  at  this  moment  507  primary 
schools.  That  is,  one  school  for  every  four  hundred 
inhabitants.  In  no  country  in  Europe  has  such 

*De  VEnseigenmentprimaire  en  Betgique,  par.  M.  le  Baron  de 
Hauleville.  (Brussels  :  Closson,  1870.)  The  reader  is  also  re- 
ferred to  an  article  by  our  author  on  the  same  subject  in  the 
Revtie  Generate  for  January,  1875. 


158       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

progress  been  made.  This  is  the  fruit  of  the  common 
efforts  of  private  individuals,  the  communes,  the  pro- 
vince and  the  central  power  :  an  association  as  wise  as 
it  is  fruitful.  ...  In  the  prolonged  attempts  of 
Luxemburg  to  establish  schools,  a  spectacle  most  in- 
teresting, I  was  going  fco  say  touching,  presents  itself. 
It  was  an  enormous  enterprise  in  itself  ;  local  difficul- 
ties came,  besides,  to  complicate  it ;  our  province 
has  a  territorial  extent  exceptional  in  the  country  ;  it 
possesses  no  great  centres  ;  it  is  thinly  populated  and 
the  people  are  scattered  into  eight  or  nine  hundred 
groups;  many  of  our  communes  are  poor.  .  .  .  For  more 
than  fifty  years  past  the  number  of  pupils  in  our  pri- 
mary schools  has  been  relatively  considerable,  and  this 
number  has  only  increased  with  time.  In  1817  it  was 
equal  to  ten  per  cent,  of  the  population  ;  it  now  ex- 
ceeds fifteen  per  cent.  Last  year  the  census  of  the 
province  showed  31,580  children  of  an  age  to  attend 
school,  and  the  number  of  pupils,  in  effect,  frequent- 
ing our  primary  schools  was  31,259  ;  there  remained, 
then,  only  341  children,  or  one  per  cent.  Never  in  any 
country  in  Europe,  nor  under  any  school  system  what- 
ever has  so  admirable  a  result  been  obtained.  The 
whole  population  passes  through  our  schools.  .  .  . 
We  possess  a  teacher  to  every  357  inhabitants,  whilst 
in  the  entire  kingdom  this  proportion  is  one  to  every 
480  inhabitants.  In  Brabant  it  is  one  to  every  507  in- 
habitants, and  in  the  province  of  Liege  one  to  every 
526.  In  a  parliamentary  document  recently  published 
and  in  which  the  state  of  primary  education  in  the 
different  countries  of  the  world  is  stated  and  ap- 


CATHOLIC   COUNTRIES  AND  EDUCATION.  159 

preciated  in  a  learned  manner,  we  read  the  following  : 
...  '  The  brightest  side  of  the  system  of  Switzer- 
land and  what  explains  its  success  and  celebrity  con- 
sists without  dispute  in  the  great  number  of  teachers 
we  there  meet.*  Well,  in  Switzerland  there  are  less 
teachers  than  among  us  ;  the  proportion  there  is  as 
follows  :  one  teacher  to  every  370  inhabitants.  Our 
superiority  is  not,  therefore,  local  only  and  rela- 
tive to  the  other  Belgian  provinces  ;  it  also  places 
Luxemburg  above  the  countries  that  are  most  favored 
in  this  respect. 

"  Such  is,  in  this  province,  the  organization  of 
popular  education,  as  the  happy  tendencies  of  the 
population,  the  law  and  time  have  made  it. 

"  Yet,  school  organization  is  only  a  collection  of 
means  more  or  less  adapted  and  whose  effects  are  un- 
certain according  to  times  and  circumstances  ;  the 
final  object,  the  great  duty,  is  the  diffusion  of  instruc- 
tion. In  what  proportion  do  the  people  of  Luxem- 
burg enjoy  this  benefit  ? 

"  On  this  point,  gentlemen,  I  often  and  curiously  in- 
terrogate statistics  and  all  the  elements  of  proof  that 
they  can  furnish  ;  here  is  the  conclusion  I  have  come 
to  :  in  more  than  half  of  our  communes  ignorance  is 
absolutely  banished  from  the  rising  generation,  as 
well  for  the  females  as  for  the  males;  in  the  other  com- 
munes, it  is,  except  in  a  very  few  retired  localities,  an 
insignificant  exception  ;  we  can  say,  then,  that  pri- 
mary instruction  in  Luxemburg  is  almost  universal." 

In  the  province  of  Namur  and  in  Limburg,both  Cath- 
olic countries,  equally  satisfactory  results  are  obtained. 


160  THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

Baron  Kervyn  de  Lettenhove  proved  but  a  short  time 
ago  to  the  Chamber  of  Representatives  that  his  "  cleri- 
cal"arrondissement  of  Ecloo  was  far  superior,  as  regards 
primary  instruction,  to  the  "  liberal  "  city  of  Brussels, 
the  capital  of  the  kingdom  and  of  the  intelligence  of 
Belgium.  All  those  who  take  an  interest  in  primary 
instruction  among  us  know  that  the  industrial  arron- 
dissements  of  Liege  and  Mons,  the  citadels  of  the  Lib- 
eral ideas,  are  classed  among  the  most  illiterate  of  our 
country.  I  leave  to  the  reader  the  trouble  of  drawing 
his  conclusions  from  these  facts. 

I  do  not  deny  the  high  degree  of  perfection  to  which 
the  Germans  but  lately  raised  their  primary  schools  : 
but  it  is  to  distort  facts  most  wonderfully  to  attribute 
this  situation  to  Lutheranism  or  to  the  Prussian 
Union.  We  might  as  well  attribute  to  the  efforts  of 
M.  V.  Tesch  the  "  primary  "  superiority  of  the  arron- 
dissement  of  Arlon  where  everybody  knows  how  to  read 
and  write. 

I  might,  perhaps,  admit,  with  a  certain  degree  of  re- 
serve, that  the  Schulzwang  (the  civil  obligation  of  going 
to  school)  has  had  much  to  do  with  this  result,  but  it  is 
not  useless  to  remark  to  our  Protestantizing  Liberals  : 
1.  That  the  Swedish  and  German  schools  were,  before  the 
war  of  187Q,confessional  schools.  2.  That  in  Belgium 
for  example,  where  the  same  system  has  happily  pre- 
vailed in  the  official  instruction,  and  where  liberty  has 
been  left  to  Catholics,  we  are  rapidly  progressing  to- 
wards the  radical  abolition  of  primary  ignorance,  with- 
out the  Schulzwang ,  without  fieldkeepers,  gendarmes 
or  Protestants.  3.  That  in  Germany  primary  instruc- 


CATHOLIC  COUNTRIES  AND  EDUCATION.  161 

tion  is  as  far,  if  not  further,  advanced  in  Catholic 
countries  than  in  the  Protestant  provinces.  4.  That 
Catholic  Belgium  has  no  reason  to  envy,  as  regards 
primary  instruction,  the  Protestant  provinces  of  Hol- 
land, and  that  it  has  the  superiority  over  Anglican 
Great  Britain.  5.  That  M.  Langlois  has  recently  dem- 
onstrated, in  the  Fran$ais,  that  primary  instruction  in 
France  is  not  inferior  to  that  of  the  most  flourishing 
States  of  the  American  Union  which  are  Protestant  fco  a 
great  extent. 

As  to  Switzerland,  I  deny  the  correctness  of  M.  de 
Laveleye's  conclusions.  It  is  possible  that  in  the  Va- 
lais,  Ticino  and  even  in  the  canton  of  Lucerne,pri- 
mary  instruction  is  less  general  than  in  some  other 
cantons,  but  this  fact,  if  it  is  correct,  is  naturally  ex- 
plained by  the  impossibility  of  erecting  schools  in  the 
mountains  inhabited  by  a  population  that  is  scattered 
here  and  there.  We  have  already  proved  that  in 
Switzerland  M.  de  Laveleye  wilfully  confounds  the 
mountains  with  the  plains. 

The  reader  will  understand  that  it  is  impossible  for 
us  to  enter  into  the  details  of  a  discussion  of  this 
kind.  I  ought  to  confine  myself  to  the  principal  points 
of  my  subject.  I  must,  however,  correct  a  prejudice 
and  an  historical  error,  which  hostility  to  the  Catho- 
lic Church  has  propagated.  Since  1870,  especially, 
our  Liberals  represent  Prussia  as  the  classic  land  of 
all  the  social  and  political  truths,  and  among  the  lat- 
ter they  cite  with  emulation  education  in  general  and 
primary  instruction  in  particular,  which  they  would 
make  the  holy  works  of  the  Prussian  Lutherans.  But 


162       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES, 

does  any  one  wish  to  know  to  whom  this  educationa 
splendor  is  in  great  part  due  ?  To  the  Catholics.  One 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  the  Marches  of  Branden- 
burg, as  regards  education  and  other  things  besides, 
was  one  of  the  States  in  all  Europe  that  had  made 
least  progress,  and  that  after  two  centuries  of  "Luth- 
eran civilization."  It  was  the  epoch  when  the  Elec- 
tor, who  seldom  jested,  one  day,  in  a  moment  of  whim- 
sical absolutism,  made  the  grave  professors  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Frankfort  on  the  Oder  sit — naked  on  the 
ice  of  the  river.  As  to  the  peasants  and  laborers,  they 
were  still  more  cruelly  treated;  the  recruiting  sergeant 
was  much  more  respected  than  the  few  successors  of 
the  Catholic  masters  who  founded  the  ancient  paro- 
chial and  claustral  schools.  The  "primary"  ignorance 
was  great.  Even  in  the  reign  of  Frederic  H. ,  when 
certain  efforts  had  already  been  made  to  change  so  la- 
mentable a  state  of  affairs,  they  had  no  intention  of  giv- 
ing to  the  school  the  significance  preached  to-day  by 
Herr  Falk  and  his  foreign  admirers.  *  'The  catechism  and 
the  four  rules  suffice,"  wrote  M.  de  Voltaire  to  his 
friend,  that  royal  philosopher  whom  people  cite  as  the 
precursor  of  the  national  Liberals,  and  who  neither 
spoke  nor  wrote  anything  but  French.  Frederick 
added  that  one  should  not  * 'break  the  branch  on  which 
he  sits." 

In  Silesia,  which  then  constituted  a  part  of  the  mon- 
archy of  the  Catholic  Hapsburgs,  the  situation  was  en- 
tirely different.  Every  locality  was  there  provided 
with  a  school,  either  parochial  or  claustral.  In  lower 
and  middle  Silesia  there  were  many  Protestants  who 


CATHOLIC   COUNTRIES   AND  EDUCATION.  163 

also  enjoyed  a  satisfactory  system  of  primary  educa- 
tion, thanks  to  a  competition  and  a  civil  liberty  which 
did  not  exist  in  the  Protestant  State  of  Brandenburg, 
any  more  than  it  does  at  present.  When  Frederick 
II.  began,  in  the  very  bosom  of  the  German  empire, 
by  the  violent  conquest  of  Silesia,  the  series  of  Prus- 
sian annexations  with  which  we  are  all  familiar,  he  re- 
membered the  services  which  the  Jesuits  had  rendered 
to  his  House,  in  working  for  the  transformation  of  the 
duchy  of  Prussia  into  a  kingdom.*  After  the  suppression 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus  he  maintained  the  Fathers  in 
possession  of  most  of  their  ancient  colleges,  which  he 
simply  transformed  into  State  establishments,  whilst 
leaving  to  them  their  Catholic  character.  Frederic 
II.  also  protected  the  popular  schools  of  the  Augas- 
tinians,  whose  establishments,  within  the  circle  of 
Sagan,  became  even  model  or  normal  schools.  Felbiger, 
the  prior  of  Sagan,  with  his  celebrated  scholasticus, 
Strauss,  may  be  considered  as  the  veritable  organizer 
of  the  ancient  Prussian  schools.  The  great  school 
settlement  of  1801  was,  so  to  say,  copied  after  the 
institute  of  these  "clericals." 

In  the  new  western  provinces  we  have  to  point  out 
analogous  facts.  Not  much  more  than  a  few  days  ago, 
there  was  inaugurated  at  Miinster,  in  Westphalia,  a 
statue  to  the  Baron  von  Furstenberg,  who  raised  popu- 
lar instruction  to  the  highest  degree  of  prosperity;  he 
was  aided  in  this  clerical  work  by  an  illustrious  Cath- 

*Regarding  this  interference  of  the  Jesuits  see  Les  Alle- 
mands  depuis  la  guerre  de  Sept-Ans,  par  M.  le  Baron  de 
Haulleville,  page  26.  (Brussels,  1868.) 


164  THE  FTJTT7BE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES.    . 

olic,  Overberg,  whose  name  is  now  familiar  to  all  the 
pedagogues  in  the  world.  The  Prussian  government 
has  no  right,  therefore,  to  exert  any  "Protestant"  ef- 
fort to  found  its  schools;  in  the  West  as  well  as  in  the 
East,  it  has  inherited  Catholic  schools  which  were 
true  models  of  confessional  institutions.  The  Prussian 
government  scrupulously  left  to  them  this  necessary 
character,  and  it  is  to  this  happy  circumstance,  and  to 
it  alone,  that  we  must  attribute  the  rich  fruits  of  popu- 
lar education  in  Prussia  down  to  1870.  Since  "the 
schoolmaster  has  conquered  at  Sedan"  he  has  become 
proud,  it  appears.  The  confessional  character  of  the 
primary  schools  has  been,  if  not  radically  suppressed, 
at  least  perverted,  and  it  becomes  easy  to  predict  that 
it  is  all  over  with  the  educational  superiority  of  Prus- 
sia since  it  has  foolishly  taken  away  the  life  which  its 
Catholic  founders  had  breathed  into  it.  "Never  has 
any  State,"  says  a  celebrated  Protestant,  a  Prussian  of 
the  old  stamp,  the  late  Herr  Dahlmann,  formerly  my 
professor  at  the  University  of  Bonn,  "never  has  any 
State  forestalled  the  education  of  children,  to  bring 
them  up  according  to  its  own  fancy,  without  injuring 
the  best  part  of  the  people;  our  sagacity  forbids  us  to 
sell  souls  to  the  State." 

M.  de  Laveleye  assures  us  that  during  the  campaign 
of  1870  the  French  (Catholic)  wounded  asked  for  cards 
to  play  with,  whilst  the  convalescent  Protestants  (Ger- 
mans) asked  for  nothing  but  books.  I  have  not  wit- 
nessed any  of  these  demands  for  cards  in  any  cf  the 
ambulances  created  during  this  dreadful  war,  of  which 
I  pray  God  to  spare  us  the  renewal,  But  I  know  that 


CATHOLIC   COUNTRIES  AND  EDUCATION.  165 

many  of  the  Catholic  German  wounded.  Bavarians, 
Rhinelanders,  Westphalians,  and  Poles  (poor  Poles  !), 
who  had  been  mutilated  in  the  service  of  the  German 
cause,  which  is  now  represented  to  us  as  that  of  Protes- 
tantism, protested  against  the  Protestant  books  which 
were  given  to  them.  Everything  had  been  foreseen  by 
the  superintendents  except  that,  and  it  was  necessary 
that  charitable  men  should  interfere  to  prevent  these 
unfortunate  creatures  from  seeing  attempts  to  ruin  their 
morals  added  to  their  physical  sufferings. 

The  organization  of  popular  instruction  does  not  date 
from  the  Reformation,  as  M.  de  Laveleye  inconsider- 
ately states.  Luther  did  not  make  his  studies  in  a 
Protestant  school.  Before  the  invention  of  printing — 
that  is  to  say,  before  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century — 
the  Catholic  clergy  alone  took  an  interest  in  the  re- 
quirements of  public  instruction.  It  was  printing  that 
gave  a  new  impulse  to  education  and  to  the  diffusion  of 
this  i  ublic  instruction.  It  is  not  my  duty  at  present  to 
give  a  history  of  the  schools  of  the  Catholic  Middle 
Ages,  from  CLarlemagne  to  Charles  V.,  although  the 
subject  is  very  interesting  and  too  generally  neglected; 
to  become  acquainted  with  the  Middle  Ages  requires 
long  studies,  and,  unfortunately,  the  enemies  of  the  Ca- 
tholic Church  intentionally  confound  their  history  with 
that  of  the  centuries  of  transition  ;  they  do  not  like  to 
apply  themselves  to  persevering  studies,  which  ordina- 
rily lead  to  sincerity,  when  they  do  not  lead  to  the 
faith.  The  schools  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  certainly 
not  equal  in  number  to  our  present  schools,  and  the 
number  of  their  discoveries  (scientific,  physical,  chemi- 


166      THE  FUTUKE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

cal,  mechanical,  astronomical,  etc.,)  was  not  equal  to 
the  amount  of  our  present  knowledge.  But  in  tlie 
claustral  schools  pupils  learned  to  write,  read  and  cal- 
culate (the  four  rules),  just  as  at  present,  and  in  the 
chairs  of  the  universities  the  moral  sciences  (the  most 
important  of  all)  were  taught  with  as  much  splendor  as 
can  be  imagined  to-day  for  the  most  blustering  univer- 
sities of  Germany, 

There  was,  for  example,  in  the  twelfth  century,  a  pro- 
fessor who  was  called  the  Count  of  Aquinas,  a  Neapolitan 
who  was  professor  at  Paris,  at  Cologne,  in  the  Italian 
universities,  and  who  went  to  die  at  Toulouse.  It  is  all 
very  fine  for  me  to  search  among  the  compatriots  of 
Herr  von  Hartmann,the  philosopher  of  the  unknowable. 
I  do  not  know  one  man  who  is  worthy  of  unlacing  the  san- 
dals of  this  Dominican,  the  Angel  of  the  Schools.  When 
writers  as  eminent  as  M.  Domet  de  Verges  and  my 
learned  fellow  laborer,  Dr.  Van  Weddingen,  perceive 
no  salvation  for  contemporary  philosophy,  but  in  a  pro- 
found study  of  scholastic  ideology  and  metaphysics,  I 
feel  myself  excited  to  pity  in  presence  of  a  multitude 
of  babbling  and  boasting  pygmies,  who  scarcely  know 
how  to  stammer  the  language  of  the  great  Christian 
scholars  who  enlightened  the  world  from  the  time  of  St. 
Bernard  to  that  of  St.  Ignatius  Loyola.  Are  not  Albert 
the  Great,  Boger  Bacon,  the  author  of  the  Imitation, 
Dante  and  Petrarch  worth  Herr  en  Virchow,  Haeckel,  v  n 
Sybel  and  Madam  Louisa  Miihlbach  ?  In  all  the  ver- 
sifications that  have  been  dedicated  to  Prince  Bismarck, 
there  is  not  a  single  line  that  breathes  the  powerful  in- 
spiration of  the  poetry  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


CATHOLIC  COUNTRIES  AND  EDUCATION.      167 

"The  reformed  worship  reposes  on  a  book — the 
Bible,"  says  M.  de  Laveleye,  "whilst  reading  is  the 
way  that  leads  Catholics  to  heresy."  This  assertion  as- 
tonishes us  by  its  errors.  In  the  first  place,  to  pretend 
that  Catholics  do  not  read,  or  are  afraid  to  read,  is  child- 
ishness. Then  M.  de  Laveleye  will  allow  me  to  in- 
form him  that  the  Protestant  sects  repose,  not  on 
the  Bible,  but  on  the  symbolical  Scriptures.  It  is 
very  true  that  Luther  gave  up  the  Bible  to  free 
individual  interpretations,  but  he.  did  not  at  all 
admit  any  one  to  contradict  his  interpretation.  So 
he  quickly  drew  up,  in  concert  with  his  friends,  a  new 
Credo,  the  Confessio  Augustana,  which  the  princes, 
enriched  by  the  spoils  of  the  Church,  propagated  with 
the  aid  of  the  sword  and  of  blood,  and  which  is  not 
even  Biblical,  since  its  doctrines  on  grace,  faith  without 
works,  etc. ,  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  Bible.  The 
diffusion  of  instruction  has  nothing  in  commoii  with 
the  Protestant  doctrine  ;  for,  in  their  religious  teach- 
ing Protestants  do  not  apply  their  principle  of  free  ex- 
amination, but  the  principles  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
since  they  instruct  children  authoritatively.  Let  us 
also  add  that  the  convulsive  efforts  of  Luther  in  favor 
of  public  instruction  date  only  from  the  second  part  of 
his  heretical  career.  The  destruction  of  the  chapters, 
convents  and  ancient  charitable  institutions,  which 
Catholic  piety  had  planted  like  dense  forests,  had  as  a 
lamentable  consequence  the  ruin  of  all  the  schools 
sustained  by  the  secular  and  the  regular  clergy.  In 
a  short  time  was  witnessed  a  great  falling  off  in  educa- 
tion and  morality.  It  was  then,  but  then  only,  that 


168  THE  FUTURE   OF   CATHOLIC   PEOPLES. 

Luther,  whose  work  was  menaced,  began  his  loud  talk 
about  the  necessity  of  education.* 

I  have  already  mentioned  the  Confession  of  Augs- 
burg. I  will  take  this  opportunity  to  resume,  for  the 
reader's  benefit,  the  singular  history  which  free  ex- 
amination in  matters  of  religion  furnishes  to  us  in 
Prussia.  The  doctrines  of  Luther  on  grace  and  on 
communion  gave  rise  to  the  most  vehement  disputes 
between  the  partisans  of  the  former  Augustinian 
monk,  those  of  Zwingli  and  those  of  Calvin.  Each 
party  pretended  to  have  a  doctrinal  infallibility, 
proved  from  the  Sacred  Scriptures  ;  these  contrary 
pretensions  were  defended,  more  than  once,  not  by 
briefs  and  encyclicals,  but  by  the  sword,  and  the 
material  victory  of  the  one  had  for  consequence  the 
moral  oppression  of  the  other.  In  western  Germany 
the  Confessio  Augustana  was  particularly  combated 
by  the  "  Beformed  "  Church  properly  so-called,  sup- 
ported by  the  Catechism  of  Heidelberg.  The  chiefs 
of  the  different  States  called  Protestant  of  the  former 
empire  of  Germany  adopted  sometimes  the  Confessio 
Augustana  and  sometimes  the  Catechism  of  Heidel- 
berg, according  as  this  change  agreed  with  their  fancy 
or  their  temporal  interest,  without  caring  much  for 
the  free  examination  of  the  people,  who  did  not  exam- 
ine at  all,  and  of  the  pastors  who  were  not  free.  The 
religious  variations  of  official  Prussia  deserve  to  be 
classed  among  the  most  singular  of  all.  In  conse- 


*  See   Luther's  works.     Also  consult   A.   Menzel's   Neuere 
Geschichte  der  Dewtschen,  voL  1,  page  123. 


CATHOLIC   COUNTRIES  AND  EDUCATION.  169 

quence  of  an  alliance  with  the  House  of  Orange,  the 
Dutch  **  reformed  "worship  became  that  of  the  court 
of  Brandenburg,  and  the  Lutheran  preachers  were 
compelled,  by  violence  if  necessary,  to  support  in  their 
temples  the  preachings  and  the  communion  of  the 
Calvinists.  Calvinist  pastors  were  even  imposed  quite 
simply  on  Lutheran  parishes. 

The  Lutheran  preachers  who  were  unwilling  to  sub- 
mit to  this  form  of  free  examination  were  brutally  de- 
posed and  banished,  exactly  in  the  same  way  as  the 
Catholic  priests  are  to-day  under  the  ministry  of  Herr 
Falk.  Let  us  cite  from  among  these  victims  of  the 
Calvinist  heresy,  Gerhard,  who  is  well-known  for  the 
services  he  rendered  to  the  Protestant  chant.  But  the 
majority  of  the  preachers  preferred  to  preserve  to 
their  families  their  daily  bread  by  adopting,  with  the 
best  possible  grace,  the  Catechism  of  Heidelberg. 
Things  went  on  thus  until  after  the  Congress  of  Vienna, 
which,  as  everybody  knows,  gave  to  the  crown  of  Prus- 
sia new  territories  inhabited  by  Saxon  Lutherans.  It 
was  then  that  the  official  Church  of  Prussia,  under  the 
bayonet  cross  of  its  territorial  bishop  (Landesbisch- 
of),  the  king,  decreed  the  fusion  of  the  two  confess- 
ions by  means  of  a  Union  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  Never 
in  any  country  has  a  similar  religious  enormity  been 
perpetrated  with  so  much  discipline  and  so  uncere- 
moniously. A  few  communities  declared  themselves 
"free;"  others  consoled  themselves  with  allowing  a 
generous  but  sterile  pietism  to  be  imposed  on  them  by 
the  authorities.  * 'Enlightened"  people  adopted  He- 
gel's religion  of  the  God-State.  As  to  the  mass  of  the 


170       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

Lutheran  population,  they  were  insensibly  converted 
to  the  Union  by  the  schoolmasters  or  by  the  aid  of 
the  military  service.  The  Prussian  Union  was  a  veri- 
table State  Church,  which  is  crumbling  before  our 
eyes,  since  baptism  has  come  to  be  no  longer  obliga- 
tory, and  since  civil  marriage  has  been  introduced  into 
the  legislation.  The  " enlightened"  middle  classes 
concern  themselves  little  about  this  perilous  situa- 
tion. Their  civilizing  scepticism  serves  them  pro- 
visionally as  an  intrenchment  under  the  protection  of 
an  army  of  twelve  hundred  thousand  men.  As  to  the 
laboring  classes  of  the  Protestant  provinces,  in  the 
Marches  of  Brandenburg,  in  Pomerania,  in  East  Prus- 
sia, in  Schleswig-Holstein,  and  in  Saxony,  they  allow 
themselves  to  be  led  away  more  and  more  towards 
socialism,  which  is  the  "religion  of  the  future." 

It  is  strange  that  M.  de  Laveleye  should  fix  pre- 
cisely upon  the  present  time  to  illustrate  the  advan- 
tages of  reading  the  Bible,  which  few  persons  now  read  in 
the  Protestant  countries  of  Germany,  especially  since 
the  Protestantenverein  has  popularized  the  criticisms 
of  Herr  Strauss  against  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  The  pres- 
ent Prussian  administration  also  has  made  efforts  to 
limit  the  reading  of  the  Bible  in  the  schools.  There 
are  not  wanting,  even  in  Germany,  men  who  "move 
about  in  the  highest  grades  of  civilization,"  and  who 
find  that  the  youth  of  modern  times  are  too  intelligent 
to  lose  their  time  in  reading  "  legends,"  respectable 
indeed,  by  reason  of  their  antiquity,  but  penetrated 
through  and  through  by  the  powerful  rays  of  modern 
science.  They  reason  like  Schiller  ; 


CATHOLIC  COUNTRIES  AND  EDUCATION.     171 

Welche  Keligion  ich  bekenne  ?  Keine  von  alien 

Die  Du  mir  nenst.    Und  warum  keine ?    Aus  Religion.* 

Things  have  come  in  Protestant  Germany  to  such  a 
state  of  religious  disorganization  that  Catholics  sin- 
cerely wish  that  they  may  not  see  the  number  of  Protes- 
tant believers  becoming  any  smaller.  The  latter  are 
at  least  Christians. 

Before  leaving  this  subject;  let  us  not  neglect  to 
point  out  still  further,  by  the  light  of  history,  the  igno- 
rance of  those  who  accuse  Catholics  of  favoring  igno- 
rance. To  those  who  pretend  in  their  pride  that  we  know 
nothing  I  might  answer  :  We  know  all  that  you  know, 
and  we  know  our  catechism  besides.  So  as  not  to  allow 
them  time  to  smile  disdainfully,  I  will  add  a  few 
facts.f  Without  going  back  to  the  "darkness"  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  when,  according  to  the  testimony  of  the 
Protestant  historian,  Voigt,  Pope  Gregory  VII.,  one 
of  the  bugbears  of  the  Liberals  of  our  time,  pressed  all 
the  bishops  to  protect  literature  and  the  arts,  and  to  or- 
ganize schools  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  their  cathe- 
dral churches,  I  will  cite  the  opinions  of  Burke,  Gibbon 
and  Hutchinson.  The  first  of  these  has  declared  that 
"  France  alone  has  produced  more  distinguished  men 
than  all  tho  Protestant  universities  of  Europe;"  the 
second  has  said  that  "  a  monastery  of  Benedictines  haa 
given  to  the  world  more  books  of  science  than  all  the 

*  "What  religion  do  I  profess?  None  of  those  which  you 
name.  And  why  none  of  them  ?  Because  of  religion." 

f  I  borrow  them,  as  well  as  what  precedes,  from  a  popular 
little  English  book  which  has  recently  been  translated  into 
French  under  the  title,  Pourquoi  nous  sommes  catholiques  et 
non  protestants,  discussion  an,  point  de  vue  de  VEcriture,  du  bon 
sens  et  desfaits.  It  was  written  by  Dr.  Keenan,  a  Scotch  priest. 
(Paris:  P.  Lethielleux,  1870.) 


172  THE  FUTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPIiES. 

universities  of  England  ;"  and  the  third  expressed  him- 
self thus  in  the  House  of  Lords  :  "  Catholicism,  which 
has  been  this  night  the  object  of  so  many  insults,  has 
been  the  belief  of  the  most  populous  and  tne  most  t  n- 
lightened  nations  of  Europe,  of  the  most  illustrious 
characters  that  have  ever  honored  the  name  of  man 
(Cobbett, Letter  I. ;  Lingard). "  The  Bishop  of  Ghent  but 
lately  recalled  to  our  memory  this  stereotyped  phrase 
of  the  documents  of  the  Pontifical cha  -cellor  :  "Igno- 
rance is  the  mother  of  vice."  This  phrase  was  proverb- 
ial in  the  Universal  Church  before  the  birth  of  Luther. 

One  thing  that  has  favored  the  calumnies  of  the  ad- 
versaries of  the  Universal  Church  is  this  fact,  that  the 
invention  of  printing  preceded  the  rise  of  Protestant- 
ism in  Europe  by  scarcely  seventy  years. 

Before  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  printing 
presses  were  established  in  thirty-four  cities  of  France, 
and  from  1455  to  1536,  22,032,900  volumes  were  printed. 
Popes  Nicholas  V.  and  Sixtus  IV.  as  well  as  the  Catho- 
lic princes  and  kings  of  most  of  the  countries  of  Eu- 
rope, protected  by  their  munificence  the  arts  and 
sciences.  Education  was  in  so  flourishing  a  state  in 
Germany  that  ten  universities  were  founded  there 
from  1403  t  >  1506. 

Erasmus  declares  that  "  education  was  triumphant 
in  England  ;  that  the  king,  the  queen,  two  cardinals 
and  all  the  bishops  were  employed  in  diffusing  it." 
All  the  universities  of  Europe  were,  in  effect,  founded 
by  Catholics.  For  three  hundred  years  the  Protest- 
ants of  England  have  shown  their  desire  to  diffuse  in- 
struction by  founding  two  universities  only,  those  of 


CATHOLIC  COUNTKIES  AND  EDUCATION.  173 

Dublin  and  London.  Modern  Europe  owes  to  the 
Catholic  Church  its  civilization,  its  laws  and  all  its 
knowledge  of  the  fine  arts.  In  effect  the  origin  of 
painting,  sculpture,  music  and  architecture,  is  entirely 
Catholic.  If  any  one  doubts  about  it,let  him  look  at  those 
magnificent  abbeys,  those  cathedrals  which  have  es- 
caped the  vandalism  of  the  Reformation,  the  ruins 
which  the  barbarous  hand  of  Protestantism  has  not 
completely  destroyed.  It  is  not,  therefore,  astonishing 
that  Colonel  Mitchell,  in  his  "  Life  of  Wallenstein," 
declares  that  "  religion  and  civilization  will  never  ac- 
quit themselves  of  the  debt  they  owe  to  the  Roman 
Pontiffs  and  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  which  for  so  long 
a  time  exerted  the  noblest  efforts  to  make  humanity 
advance  in  the  way  of  progress.*' 

When  writing  that  Catholics  were  prohibited  in  a  gen- 
eral manner  to  read  the  Sacred  ScripturesM.  de  Laveley e 
should  have  indicated  the  source  from  which  he  obtained 
this  strange  information.  I  read  in  a  work  en  titled  "La 
lecture  dela  Bible  en  langue  vulgaire,"  which  is  from 
the  authorized  pen  of  Mgr.  Malou,  Bishop  of  Bruges  : 

"  Has  the  Church  passed  a  law  which  prohibits 
Catholics  to  read  the  Holy  Bible  ?  I  do  not  hesitate 
to  answer  :  No.  The  Church  has  never  prohibited 
the  reading  of  the  Bible  to  all  the  faithful.  Never  has 
she  forbidden  in  an  absolute  manner  the  reading  of  the 
holy  books,  in  any  language  whatever ',  to  all  laymen. 
Never  has  she  sanctioned  a  species  of  monopoly  in  fa- 
vor of  the  clergy." 

Undoubtedly  the  Church  has  decreed  certain  re- 
strictions in  this  matter,  remembering  those  of  whom 


174  THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

St.  Peter  speaks,  when  he  says  that  certain  parts  of 
the  Epistles  of  Sfc.  Paul  are  "hard  to  be  understood, 
which  the  unlearned  and  unstable  wrest,  as  they  do 
also  the  other  Scriptures,  to  their  own  destruction. " 
(2nd  Ep.  III.  16).  But  this  prohibition  justifies  it- 
self. Here  is  the  rule  :  Benedict  XIV.  gave  his  appro- 
bation in  1757  to  a  decree  of  the  Congregation  of  the  In- 
dex, which  granted  to  all  the  faithful  the  general  per- 
mission to  read  the  Bible  in  the  vulgar  tongue, provided 
that  the  vei  sions  should  have  been  approved  by  the  com- 
petent authority,  and  should  be  accompanied  by  notes 
taken  from  the  writings  of  the  holy  Fathers  or  f  romCath- 
olic  writers.  Every  day  the  Church  in  its  offices  causes 
the  Scriptures  to  be  read  to  the  assembled  faithful. 

In  1826  the  English  Catholic  bishops  publicly  de- 
clared that  never  did  the  Church  prohibit  the  circula 
tion  of  authentic  copies  of  the  Scriptures.  Pius  VII., 
in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  English  bishops,  and  dated 
the  18th  of  April,  1826,  told  them  "to  induce  the  faithful 
to  read  the  Holy  Scriptures,  for  that  nothing  was  more 
useful,  more  capable  of  consoling  and  animating  them. 
They  confirm  the  faith,  strengthen  the  hope,  and  in- 
flame the  charity  of  the  true  Christian." 

Pius  VI.,  writing  to  Martini,  Archbishop  of  Flor- 
ence, regarding  his  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  con- 
gratulates him  on  his  zeal  in  publishing  this  translation 
and  exhorts  the  faithful  to  read  it :  this  letter,  dated 
April  1778,  is  placed  at  the  beginning  of  all  the  En- 
glish Catholic  Bibles. 

Before  Protestantism  existed  there  were  more  than 
twenty  translations  of  the  Bible  in  most  of  the  modern 


CATHOUO   COUNTRIES   AND   EDUCATION.  175 

languages.     Here  is  the  enumeration  of  some  old  Cath- 
olic translations  : 

Bible  of  Just,  Mayence 1462 

Bible  of  Bender,  Augsburg 1467 

Malermi's  Italian  Bible 1471 

The  Four  Gospels  in  Flemish  (Belgian) 1472 

The  entire  Bible  in  "  Belgian,"  Cologne 1475 

Bible  of  Julien 1477 

Edition  of  Delft 1477 

Bible  of  Ferrier,  Spanish 1478 

Edition  of  Gonda 1479 

Edition  of  Des  Moulins,  French 1490 

Four  translations  mentioned  by  Bausobre  (Histoire 
de  la  JReforme,  Book  4.),  printed  before 1522 

To  this  enumeration  it  may  be  as  well  to  add  the  fol- 
lowing list  of  the  old  manuscript  Catholic  translations  : 

Of  the  Bible  into  English : 1290 

"       "        "    Anglo-Saxon,  verse 1300 

"       "        "     German  languages 800 

"       "         "    Italian 1270 

"       "        "    Spanish 1280 

"       "        "    French 1294 

Before  Luther's  time  three  translations  and  several 
editions  of  the  Bible  appeared  in  Italy ;  four  transla- 
tions and  a  multitude  of  editions  were  published  in  the 
Gothic  languages  and  in  French ;  two  Belgian  transla- 
tions which  passed  through  several  editions.  A  Czech 
translation  was  published  at  Prague  in  1488  ;  at  Putna 
in  1498 ;  at  Venice  in  1506  and  1511.  Many  other  Cath- 
olic translations  into  almost  all  the  languages  of  the 
world  were  published  at  Borne,  the  sanctuary  of 
"Popery." 


176       THE  FUTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

The  anti- Catholic  prejudices,  of  certain  writers  are 
so  deeply  rooted  that  it  ia  with  the  greatest  difficulty 
we  succeed  in  making  them  believe  that  Luther  was, 
not  the  first  translator  of  the  Bible  into  the  vulgar 
German  tongue.  Before  the  apostasy  of  the  too  fa- 
mous Augustinian  monk,  there  existed  twenty-one 
German  translations  (fifteen  in  Hochdeutsch  and  six 
in  Niedersaevhsisch)  in  Germany.  Luther  himself 
made  use  of  the  translation  of  Nicholas  of  Lyra,  which 
appeared  in  1473,  and  passed  through  several  editions 
before  the  Reformation.  Luther  made  such  good  use 
of  the  translation  of  Lyra  that  a  comic  poet  has  render- 
ed this  truth  proverbial : 

Si  Lyra  non  lyrasset,  Lutherus  non  saltasset.* 

A  Protestant  writer,  whose  honest  testimony  we 
have  more  than  once  invoked,  Mr.  Laing,  (in  his 
"Notes  of  a  Traveller"),  makes  the  following  admis- 
sions : 

"The  education  of  the  regular  clergy  in  the  Catho- 
lic Church  is  perhaps  absolutely,  and  without  any 
doubt  comparatively,  superior  to  that  of  the  Protest- 
ant clergy.  By  absolutely  superior,  I  mean  that  in  a 
given  number  of  Popish  priests  and  Protestant  minis- 
ters, one  will  find  among  the  former  a  greater  number 
of  men  who  can  read  and  understand  the  ancient  lan- 
guages, Greek,  Latin  and  Hebrew,  and  the  modern 
languages  that  have  any  connection  with  that  of  the 
Old  Testament,  a  greater  number  of  scholars,  distin- 
guished mathematicians,  and  a  larger  amount  of  ac- 

"*If  Lyra  had  not  piped,  Luther  had  not  danced," 


CATHOLIC  COUNTRIES  AND  EDUCATION.  177 

quired  knowledge.  The  Catholic  clergy  have  adroitly 
iaken  possession  of  education,  not,  as  people  suppose 
ji  Protestant  countries,  to  leave  the  people  in  the 
darkness  of  ignorance  and  to  teach  them  errors  and 
superstititions,  but  to  be  masters  of  the  influence  that 
useful  knowledge  has  over  society." 

In  allusion  to  this  vulgar  calumny,  viz  :  "that  the 
Catholic  clergy  leave  the  people  in  the  darkness  of  ig- 
norance," he  combats  it  in  these  terms,  long  before 
the  violent  overthrow  of  the  temporal  sovereignty  of 
the  Holy  See,  and  before  the  constitution  of  the  Talk 
regime  in  Prussia  : 

"This  opinion  of  our  ministers  is  more  orthodox 
t^an  it  is  charitable  and  true.  The  Popish  clergy  has 
less  to  lose  by  the  progress  of  education  than  the  Pro- 
testant clergy.  ID  Catholic  Germany,  in  France,  in 
Italy,  and  even  in  Spain,  the  education  of  the  lower 
classes  in  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  music,  polite- 
ness and  morality  is  diffused  by  the  clergy  with  at  least 
as  much  generality  and  zeal  as  in  Protestant  countries. 
It  is  of  their  own  accord,  and  not  on  account  of  the  in- 
itiative taken  by  the  people,  that  the  Popish  priests  of 
the  present  day  seek  to  maintain  themselves  at  the 
head  of  intellectual  progress.  The  Popish  Church,far 
from  being  opposed  to  education,  protects  it,  and  it  is 
in  her  hands  a  powerful  instrument  which  she  knows 
how  to  use.  In  every  street  in  Borne  there  are,  at  short 
distances  from  each  other,  primary  schools  for  the  edu- 
cation of  the  children  of  the  lower  and  middle  classes. 
Eome,  with  a  population  of  158,678  souls,  has  372  pri- 
mary schools,  comprising  452  masters  and  14, 099  pupils.  * 


178  THE  FUTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

Berlin,  with  a  population  twice  as  large  as  that  of 
Borne,  has  only  264  schools.  Borne  has  a  university 
attended  by  660  students ;  and  the  Papal  States,  with 
a  population  of  two  millions  and  a  half,  contain  seven 
universities.  Protestant  Prussia,  with  a  population  of 
fourteen  millions,  has  only  seven.  The  fact  that  Borne 
lias  at  least  a  hundred  schools  more  than  Berlin,  al- 
though its  population  is  less  than  half,  disposes  of  all 
these  calumnies.  But,  some  one  will  ask,  what  do  the 
people  of  Borne  learn  in  these  schools?  Precisely 
what  is  taught  to  the  people  of  Berlin,  the  most  Protest- 
ant capital  of  the  most  Protestant  State  in  the  world  : 
reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  geography,  the  languages, 
and  religious  doctrine. "  « 

This  testimony,  given  by  an  adversary,  is  well  calcu- 
lated, says  Dr.  Keenan,  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  Protes- 
tants that  are  blindest  to  this  truth,  that  the  Catholic 
Church  loves  education  and  protects  the  arts  and 
sciences.  The  Catholic  Church  respects  science  because 
it  comes  from  God,  and  because  it  teaches  respect. 
"  The  Catechism  is  the  greatest,  the  holiest  school  of 
respect  that  the  world  has  ever  had. "  Let  M.  de  Lave- 
leye  allow  me,  en  passant,  to  give  the  exact  words  of 
this  quotation  from  M.  Guizot  (Meditations  et  etudes 
morales,  pp.  70,  71).  It  is  applied  to  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  not  to  the  dissenting  sects.  M.  de  Lave- 
leye  wished  to  give  the  Protestant  Churches  the  honor 
of  it  by  suppressing  the  word  Catholic  and  replacing  it 
by  the  epithet  Christian. 


CHAPTEE 

CATHOLIC  COUNTRIES  AND  MORALITY. 

Literary  Corruption  in  France  the  Fruit  of  Anti-Catholic  Doc- 
trines— Political  Absolutism  the  Antithesis  of  the  Catho- 
lic Church— The  Catholic  Church  was  the  First  and  the 
only  one  in  History  to  Maintain  the  Absolutely  Moral 
Character  of  Marriage — Morals  in  Spain  and  Italy  more 
Pure  than  in  Protestant  Countries — The  average  Illegiti- 
macy higher  among  Protestant  peoples.— Immorality  in 
the  North  of  Europe — Comparative  Statistics  of  Morality 
in  England.  » 

M.  de  Laveleye  has  surpassed  himself  in  the  fol- 
lowing proposition  : 

"  Everybody  is  disposed  to  grant  that  the  strength  of 
nations  depends  on  their  morality.  .  .  .  But  it  ap- 
pears to  be  averred  that  the  standard  of  morality  is 
higher  among  Protestant  than  among  Catholic  peo- 
ples." 

After  so  audacious  an  assertion  one  naturally  ex- 
pects a  demonstration,  especially  on  the  part  of  a  pro- 
fessor of  political  economy.  A  demonstration  is,  in 
effect,  given  to  us  ;  but  it  is  entirely  directed  against 
the  friends  of  the  author,  the  Liberals.  Here  is  a  re- 
capitulation of  it  :  Catholic  peoples  are  corrupted,  for 

1.  The  French  fashionable  literature  is  immoral  : 

2.  In  Catholic  countries  those  who  have  wished  to 
combat  the  Roman  Church  have  borrowed  their  arms 
from  paganism  and  from  the  spirit  of  the  Renaissance. 
Almost  all  the  French  authors  and  politicians  who 
have  worked  for  the  emancipation  of  the  mind  have 


180      THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

been  conspicuous  for  their  immorality.  Those  who  re- 
spect morals  are  almost  always  devoted  to  the  Church 
but  penetrated  with  "absolutist"  doctrines.  In  Eng- 
land and  America,  on  the  contrary,  the  same  men  de- 
fend at  the  same  time  religion,  morality,  and  liberty  : 

3.  M.  Taine  (a  positivist)  and  M.  Provost  Paradol 
(who  committed  suicide  after  having  passed  over  to 
Caesar)  have  said  that  the  French  (the  Catholics  ?)  no 
longer  base  morality  on  anything  but  a  point  of 
honor,  whilst  the  English  (the  Protestants  ?)  base  it 
on  austere  duty. 

There  are  many  truths  in  the  pages  which  M.  de 
Jjaveleye  devotes  to  the  development  of  these  three 
arguments  ;  in  reading  them  attentively  one  remains 
even  convinced  that,  if  the  author  were  not  blinded 
by  his  anti-Catholic  prejudices  (truth  has,  in  certain 
cases,  the  privilege  of  "  shutting  its  eyes  "),  his 
reasoning  would  become  altogether  correct.  But  such 
as  it  is,  it  resembles  a  stupid  blunder  in  strategy  :  M. 
de  Laveleye  fires,  without  perceiving  it,  upon  his  own 
forces. 

He  speaks  correctly  when  he  accuses  of  a  corruption 
of  taste  the  most  fashionable  literateurs  in  France, 
the  Sainte-Beuves,  the  Abouts,  the  Sardous,  the  Alex. 
Dumas,  etc.,  etc.  M.  Schaepman  has  already  made 
the  able  retort  that  M.  de  Laveleye  might  preach  by 
example,  by  preventing,  in  the  periodicals  of  which  he 
has  control,  the  publication  of  such  romances  as  the 
'  *  Vicaire  de  Noirval"  and  the  * '  Chambre  d  louer. "  To 
this  argumentum  ad  hominem  I  will  add  others  more 
to  the  point :  the  writers  to  whom  M.  de  Laveleye  al- 


CATHOLIC  COUNTRIES  AND  MORALITY.  181 

ludes  are  all  anti-Catholic,  and  the  translations  of  their 
works  and  their  comedies  are  very  much  relished  in 
"the  country  of  the  fear  of  God  and  pious  morals," 
particularly  at  Berlin,  one  of  the  most  immoral  cities 
in  the  world.  The  princes  of  the  French  literature  of 
ihe  present  century,  the  Chateaubriands,  the  Gratrys 
Jie  Montalemberts,  the  Autrans,  the  Laprades,  the 
Dupanloups,  the  Lacordaires,  etc.,  are  neither  cor- 
;upt  men,  nor  Protestants,  nor  Liberals.  The  first 
prose  writer  in  England  is  a  Catholic — Father  New- 
man, whose  friend,  Father  Faber,  has  left  lyrical 
poetry  far  superior  in  inspiration  to  the  works  of  Ten- 
nyson, the  poet  laureate.  The  two  great  geniuses  of 
Germany  in  the  nineteenth-  century  have  been  Catho- 
lics ;  Grillparzer  the  Austrian,  and  Joseph  Goerres,  of 
Coblentz.  Manzoni,  the  most  brilliant  glory  of  Italy, 
was  a  Catholic.  The  mighty  works  of  Don  Jayme 
Balmes  have  shed  their  rays  upon  the  world  and  asso- 
ciated the  country  of  Calderon  with  the  efforts  of 
Catholic  peoples,  in  the  vast  field  of  literature :  Dom- 
inus  illuminatio  mea. 

M.  de  Laveleye  compares  Luther,  who  was  very 
modest,  as  we  all  know,  Calvin,  Knox  and  Zwingli, 
with  Eabelais  and  Voltaire.  This  is  a  comparison 
which  Catholics  will  allow  him  to  draw  with  all  possi- 
ble serenity,  only  he  should  have  added  Ulric  von 
Hutten  to  his  Piotestant  list.  Catholics  will  thank 
him  also  for  having  put  in  their  place,  alongside  of 
Eabelais  and  Voltaire,  the  guilty  geniuses  of  Kousseau, 
P.  L.  Courier  and  Beranger,  these  idols  of  contempo- 
rary liberalism,  and  with  having  been  able  to  cite  as 


182       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

"absolutists,"  from  among  the    Catholic  literary  stars 
of  France,  only  the  names  of  Bossuet,   Fenelon,   and 
Racine.     I  ask  pardon  for  the  latter.     His    obsequi- 
ousness to  Louis  XTV.   never  injured,  in  the  mind  of 
the  readers,  any  one    but  the  Roi  Soleil ;  it  has  at 
least  contributed  towards  giving  us  Athalie,  a  master- 
piece,and  the  son  whom  he  brought  up  has  sung  in  im- 
mortal verses  the  wonders  of  the  Catholic  faith  : 
Faux  sages,  faux  savants,  indociles  esprits, 
Un  moment,  fiers  mortels,  suspendez  vos  mepris. 
La  raison,  dites-vous,  doit  etre  notre  guide  : 
A  toua  mes  pas  aussi  cette  raison  preside, 
Sous  la  divine  loi  que  vous  osez  braver, 
C'est  elle-meme  ici  qui  va  me  captiver, 
Et  parle  a  tous  les  coeurs  q'elle  invite  a  s'y  rendre  : 
Vous  done  qui  la  vantez,  daignez  du  moms  1'entendre.* 
It  was  not  Jean  Racine,  who,  after  having  penned 
well-studied  phrases  on  the  "point  of  honor, "would 
have  accepted  from  the  enemies  of  Louis  XIV.  an  em- 
bassy  to    America,  only    to    commit    suicide    there. 
Fe*ne*lon,  whose  works  I  do  not  unreservedly  admire, 
and  whose  romance,  called  Telemaque,  has  falsified  the 
political  ideas  of  the  French  as  much  as  have  the  histor- 
ical manuals  of  the  good  Rollin,  was  not  an  absolutist. 
He  submitted  to  the  regime  of  the  Roi  Soleil ;  but  he 
did  not  write  up  its  principles.  As  to  Bossuet,  we  will 
concede  a  little  to  M.  de  Laveleye,  wlio  appears  to  have 

*  "False  sages,  false  scholars,  disobedient  spirits,  proud 
mortals,  restrain  your  contempt  for  an  instant.  Beason,  you 
say, ought  to  be  your  guide  :  this  reason  guides  me  also  in  every 
step  I  take.  Under  the  divine  law  which  you  dare  to  brave,  it 
is  the  very  thing  that  will  captivate  me  ;  it  speaks  to  all  hearts, 
and  invites  them  to  take  refuge  with  it ;  do  you,  then,  who 
boast  of  it,  deign  at  least  to  listen  to  it" 


CATHOLIC   COUNTRIES   AND  MOBALITY.  183 

forgotten  that  this  great  mind  dimmed  its  own  glory  by 
becoming  too  much  the  theologian  of  Gallicanism,  an 
error  which  was  in  a  certain  sense  the  "  Bismarckism" 
of  the  seventeenth  century  in  France,  that  is  to  say,  a 
thoroughly  Liberal  error,  accepted,  moreover,  by  all  the 
Protestant  Churches  since  Luther,  as  the  foundation  of 
the  ecclesiastico-civil  law. 

That  the  pious  Protestants  of  our  time,  the  "austere 
Calvinists,"  the  amiable  Quakers,  the  mild  Puritans, 
and  even  the  Gueux  of  Holland,  most  of  whom 
were  retired  revolutionists,  have  shown  themselves 
more  chaste,  more  moral,  more  Christian,  in  a  word, 
than  Mirabeau,  (the  friend  of  Frederick  II.),  St.  Just 
and  Robespierre,  I  am  not  the  man  who  will  deny ;  but 
what  do  the  Liberals  think  of  this?  That  sincere 
Protestantism,  that  is  to  say,  incomplete  Christianity, 
is  superior  to  paganism,  as  M.  de  Laveleye  grants,  no 
Catholic  will  dispute ;  let  us  show,  however,  that  the 
most  prominent  Liberals  are  not  of  this  opinion.  But 
I  search  in  vain  through  M.  de  Laveleye's  pamphlet  for 
a  proof  of  the  moral  superiority  of  Protestantism  over 
the  Universal  Church,  that  Church  in  which  one  every 
day  addresses  ardent  prayers  to  the  holy  Virgin,  the 
seat  of  wisdom,  sedes  sapientice,  and  the  mother  most 
chaste,  mater  castissima. 

I  do  not  pretend  that  the  inhabitants  of  Catholic 
countries  become  impeccable  from  the  very  fact  that  they 
accept  the  Councils  of  Trent  and  of  the  Vatican ;  it  is 
not  enough  to  have  the  faith ;  to  render  ourselves  wor- 
thy of  it  we  must  practise  it,  and  accomplish  works.  It 
is  but  right  to  observe  also  that  in  Catholic  countries, 


184      THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

in  Belgium,  in  France,  in  the  South,  East  and  West  of 
Germany,  in  Italy,  in  Spain,  in  Portugal,  etc. ,  etc. ,  po- 
litical, social  and  religious  revolutions,  provoked  by  the 
social  influence  of  Protestantism^  have*created  a  state 
of  things  in  which  it  often  becomes  very  difficult,  not  to 
say  impossible,  to  distinguish  the  Catholic  populations, 
properly  so-called,  from  the  other  social  bodies.  Every- 
where the  good  grain  is  mixed  with  the  cockle.  One 
thing  is  certain,  that  is,  that  to  take  into  consideration 
only  the  historical  point  of  view,  there  is  not  in  the  an- 
nals of  humanity  a  form  of  worship  which  has  imposed 
in  so  absolute  a  manner  the  divine  precepts  contained 
in  the  sixth  and  ninth  commandments.  How  many 
people  would  be  excellent  Catholics  if  they  could  sup- 
press these  two  obstacles  that  stand  in  the  way  of  their 
passions  !  The  worst  feature  of  religious  error  in 
the  nineteenth  century  is  its  having  denied  the  sacra- 
mental character  of  marriage.  The  evangelical  consis- 
tory,  assembled  in  council,  authorized,  in  virtue  of  the 
tolerant  maxims  of  Melanchton,  Philip  the  Magnan- 
imous, Elector  of  Hesse,  to  share  his  throne  with  two 
Electresses  at  the  same  time.  The  King  of  Prussia, 
Frederick  William  II.,  who  gave  his  right  hand  to  the 
Queen,  gave  his  left  to  Julia  von  Voss.  This  second 
marriage  was  blessed,  on  the  25th  of  May,  1787,  in  the 
chapel  of  the  castle  of  Charlottenburg,  by  the  reverend 
Zoellner,  preacher  at  the  court. 

Liberalism,  which  is,  in  certain  respects,  the  degen- 
erate offspring  of  Protestantism,  is  doctrinally  power- 
less to  prevent  the  natural  consequences  of  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  sacrament  of  marriage.  Outside  the  Cath- 


CATHOLIC  COUNTBIES  AND  MORALITY.  185 

olio  faith,  practised  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  one  may  be 
chaste  in  three  ways  :  as  a  man  without  love,  as  a  pious 
Mussulman,  or  as  a  eunuch.  Thank  heaven,  there 
have  beeD^since  Henry  VIII, the  man  of  seven  "succes- 
sive "  wives,  myriads  of  sincere,  pious  and  chaste  Prot- 
estants, but  they  were  and  are  so  in  the  name  of  the 
principles  of  the  Catholic  Church,  which,  by  a  strange 
inconsistency,  they  practise,  whilst  opposing  them  dog- 
matically ;  and  the  public  which  has  applauded  the 
Liberal  homilies  of  M.  de  Laveleye,  call  these  Protest- 
ants pietists  or  hypocrites.  There  are  two  gates  of 
exit  in  the  Catholic  Church,or  rather  a  single  gate  with 
two  foldings ;  the  pride  of  the  body,  which  is  volup- 
tuousness, and  the  voluptuousness  of  the  spirit,  which 
is  pride.  To  assert  that  the  sincere  practice  of  the 
Catholic  faith  can  engender  immorality,  one  must  not 
have  the  faintest  idea  of  the  organism  of  the  Church 
and  of  the  spiritual  conditions  of  its  existence.  Logic- 
ally it  is  a  contradiction  in  action. 

In  fact,  morals  are  more  pure  in  Spain  and  Italy 
than  in  the  Protestant  countries  of  the  North.  I  know 
that,  since  1870  especially,  people  say  very  much  of 
the  immorality  of  the  French,  which  may  have  been 
the  ally  of  the  German  schoolmaster  in  leading  to  the 
military  triumph  of  Sedan.  In  the  very  palace  of 
Louis  XIV.  at  Versailles,  during  the  siege  of  Paris, 
the  highest  military  authority  of  the  German  army 
pronounced  a  grand  eulogy  on  German  morals  and  on 
those  of  Berlin  ;  it  is  from  that  epoch  that  people, 
when  speaking  of  Berlin,  date  this  phrase,  "  the  city 
of  pious  morals  and  of  the  fear  of  God.'*  It  is  only 


186       THE  FUTUKE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

too  true  that  in  certain  parts  of  France,  in  the  centre 
especially  and  in  the  departments  adjoining  Paris, 
there  reigns  an  amount  of  immorality  which  makes  us 
fear  for  the  future  of  the  nation.  But  these  depart- 
ments are  precisely  those  in  which  the  influence  of 
the  Catholic  Church  has  been  most  successfully  op- 
used.  These  districts,  however,  are  no  more  immoral 
t^iaii  the  entire  north  of  Germany,  which  a  person  must 
nave  lived  in  to  know  it  thoroughly.  I  have  some 
knowledge  of  Mecklenburg  and  the  neighboring  prov- 
inces ;  nowhere  in  France  have  I  witnessed  so  much 
baseness,  so  much  gross  materialism,  so  much  stupid 
impurity.  Paris  is  cited,  not  without  reason,  as  one 
of  the  bordels  of  modern  civilization  ;  but  this  city  of 
pleasures,  this  rendezvous  of  the  lazy,  the  idle  and  the 
vicious  of  the  entire  world  has  never  passed,  as  far  as 
I  know,  for  a  Catholic  city :  they  kill  the  archbishops 
there,  shoot  the  hostages,  erect  resounding  tribunes 
for  the  implacable  enemies  of  the  Church  and  run 
thither  from  the  four  corners  of  the  world  to  applaud 
in  the  theatres,  on  the  boulevards,  in  the  cafe's,  in  the 
concert  saloons  and  elsewhere,  all  the  vices  which  are 
the  concrete  negation  of  Catholic  faith  and  morality. 
At  London,  in  the  capital  of  the  only  Prot- 
estant country  in  which  Catholics  can  now- 
adays derive  useful  instruction  from  things  which  their 
blind  or  liberal  governments  have  made  them  forget, 
ancient  laws  of  Catholic  origin  do  not  permit  the  pub- 
lic exhibition  of  elegant  or  ingenious  vice  ;  but  is  this 
great  city  on  the  whole  more  moral  than  Paris?  I 
doubt  it.  As  to  the  city  of  Berlin  I  am  certain  that  it 


CATHOLIC  COUNTEIES  AND  MORALITY.  187 

it  is  inferior  to  Paris  in  respect  to  morals.  Vice  does 
not  enjoy  there,  as  at  Paris,  the  vogue  organized  by 
men  of  letters,  of  art  or  of  the  theatre,  who,  under  the 
most  fallacious  pretexts,  I  grant,  make  you  at  least 
laugh  quite  heartily  sometimes,  or  hold  you  under 
the  charm  of  a  language  and  manner  worthy  of  the 
most  polished  society  ;  but  the  vice  which  stalk; 
abroad  at  Berlin  is  gross  and  brutal,  without  elegance 
and  without  refinement.  All  the  social  wounds  of  France 
weigh  heavily  upon  it,  and  the  «•  odors  of  Paris  "  are 
unendurable  there.  If  you  wish  to  appreciate  all  the 
hideousness  of  French  vices  you  must  go  and  examine 
their  translations  at  London  and  especially  at  Ber- 
lin where  divorce  has  attained  proportions  unheard  of 
in  the  history  of  Christian  peoples.  I  might  speak  at 
great  length  of  all  the  solid  virtues  of  the  German 
Catholics,  and  I  was  personally  acquainted,  even  in 
the  north  of  Germany,  with  many  Protestant  families 
that  might  be  cited  as  models,  but  it  would  be  impos- 
sible for  me  to  find,  in  any  large  city  in  the  world,  as 
many  religious  works  as  there  are  in  Paris.  Side  by 
side  with  the  most  repulsive  moral  infections,  we  see 
arising  the  radiant  beauty  of  the  charity  whose  inces- 
sant action  possesses  the  marvellous  gift  of  purifying 
the  atmosphere  through  which  it  passes.  Do  you 
wish  to  comprehend  in  a  single  phrase  the  abyss 
which  separates  the  moral  condition  of  Paris  from  that 
of  London  and  Berlin.  In  Paris  the  Sister  of  Charity 
is  honored  and  the  Little  Sister  of  the  Poor  is  pro- 
tected ;  in  London  they  are  beginning  to  be  tolerated ; 
they  are  proscribed  in  Berlin. 


188      THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

I  read  recently  in  an  essay  by  Dr.  Fonsagrives  of 
Moc  tpellier  on  Hygiene  Sociale  : 

*'It  is  stated  that  there  is  in  Europe  an  average  ille- 
i  icy  of  15  natural  children  in  every  100  births.  I 
t 'nought  it  interesting  to  compare  the  amount  of  ille- 
gitimacy throughout  the  entire  of  European  peoples 
of  German  race  with  what  it  is  among  peoples  of  L  .tin 
race,  and  I  have  found  that  for  the  former  it  was  15 
per  cent.,  and  for  the  latter  6.11.  Where,  then,  is  this 
German  morality  of  which  so  much  has  been  said  in 
these  latter  years  ?" 

In  Sweden  and  Norway  immorality  is  "prodigious." 
Bayard  Taylor  wrote,  as  far  back  as  1858,  that  "the 
Church  of  Sweden  is  being  slowly  petrified  by  pure 
inertia."  I  would  be  glad  to  have  M.  de  Laveleye  or 
some  other  modern  Protestant  cite  for  me  a  man,  a 
book,  a  work  of  contemporary  Sweden,  in  the  interest 
of  the  Christian  religion  and  morality,  whose  merits 
entitle  it  to  European  notice.  "In  no  Christian 
communion,"  says  a  Scotch  Protestant  writer,  Mr. 
Laing,  "has  religion  less  influence  on  the  moral  state 
of  the  public.  When  a  man  is  passing  through  the 
streets  of  Stockholm,  he  may  make  this  reflection : 
out  of  every  three  persons  passing  alongside  of  me 
there  is  one  that  is  the  fruit  of  illicit  intercourse,  and 
out  of  every  forty-nine,  one  at  least  has  committed 
criminal  offences."  Mr.  Inglis,  however,  another 
Protestant  traveller,  does  not  hesitate  to  assert  that 
•'  the  standard  of  morality  is  much  higher  in  Sweden 
than  in  Norway."  In  this  latter  country  "indifference 
with  regard  to  religion  is  general."  This  will  suffice, 


CATHOLIC   COUNTRIES  AND  MOBALITY.  189 

I  hope,  on  this  subject  whose  details  it  is  very  hard  to 
expound  to  a  Catholic  public. 

Let  us  say  nothing  of  the  nursery  of  the  Mormons, 
Denmark,  where  in  1777  and  in  1789,  they  still  de- 
creed the  penalty  of  death  against  the  Catholic  priests 
who  should  set  their  foot  on  the  territory  of  the  king- 
dom. If  from  Protestant  Prussia  "  the  country  of 
pious  morals  and  of  the  fear  of  God, "  if  from  Sweden, 
which  but  lately  was  the  most  violently  intolerant 
country  in  Europe  before  the  publication  of  the  Talk 
laws,  if  from  Norway,  which  is  still  more  immoral  than 
Sweden,  and  that  is  saying  very  much,  we  passed 
over  to  Scotland,  the  most  Calvinistic  and  the  most  in- 
temperate country  in  the  world,  we  should  have  a  vile 
picture  to  unfold  to  the  eyes  of  the  reader  ;  we  would 
have  to  develop  this  theme  of  the  Saturday  JReview 
(8th  Oct.  1859)  : 

"  It  is  certain  that  Scotland  presents  the  spectacle 
of  being  the  nation  that  is  most  completely  Puritanized 
and  the  most  completely  addicted  to  drnnkenness  that 
is  on  the  surface  of  the  earth.  New  York  is  indis- 
putably the  most  immoral  city  in  the  world ;  at 
Geneva  religion  is  almost  unknown  ;  and  at  Glasgow 
the  sons  of  the  Covenanters  form  the  population  that 
is  most  brutalized  by  drunkenness."  . 

We  should  also  study  this  other  subject,  lately 
pointed  out  by  the  Times  : 

"  According  to  a  parliamentary  document  recently 
published  by  Parliament  and  compiled  by  Dr. 
Cameron,  during  the  year  ending  the  30th  of  June 
1875,  61,173  persons  were  arrested  in  Scotland  for 


190       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

drunkenness  :  38,213  as  "  drunk  and  incapable,"  and 
26,960  as  "  drunk  and  disorderly." 

But  we  must  restrain  ourselves.  The  pages  that 
precede  suffice,  morever,  to  prove  satisfactorily 
the  futility  of  M.  de  Laveleye's  incredible  argu- 
ments. However,  before  leaving  this  matter  I  will  cite 
another  book  written  by  Dr.  John  Forbes,  a  physician 
of  the  Court  of  England.  In  his  '*  Memoranda  in 
Ireland  in  1852,"  John  Forbes,  M.  D.,  physician  to 
her  Majesty's  household,  has  established  in  the 
following  manner  the  statistics  of  illegitimate  births 
in  the  British  Isles  : 

Catholic  Ireland  has  one  illegitimate  in  every  16.47  le- 
gitimate births ;  England  one  in  every  1.49  ;  arch-Pro- 
testant Wales  one  in  0.46. 

These  proportions  are  far  from  being  favorable  to 
M.  de  Laveleye's  thesis. 

There  are  others  which  will  somewhat  grieve  him  also. 
In  Ireland  the  Catholic  faith  not  only  embalms  patriot- 
ism, but  also  preserves  private  morals  ;  in  Catholic 
Connaught  there  is  one  illegitimate  birth  in  every 
23. 53  legitimate  ones,  whilst  in  Protestant  Ulster  there 
is  one  in  every  7.26. 

If  I  add  that  the  apostle  of  temperance,    the  ad- 
mirable and  heroic  Father  Mathew,  came  from  Con- 
naught,*  I  will  have  completely  destroyed  the  obscuri- 
ties which  M.  de  Laveleye  has  tried  to  heap  aron 
the  glorious  purity  of  Catholic  morality. 

Let  us  now  pass  on  to  another  subject. 

*  We  have  already  corrected  this  mistake. 


CHAPTEK  Yin. 

THE   REFORMATION  HAS  NOT  FAVORED  THE  DEVELOPMENT 
OF   CIVIL  LIBERTIES. 

Wherever  the  Kef  onnation  Triumphed  it  Set  up  u  State  Church, 
Destroyed  Civil  Liberty,  and  Forced  the  Nation  to  Recede 
instead  of  Advancing  in  the  way  of  Political  Progress — 
Civil  and  Political  Liberties  have  relatively  Flourished  only 
in  Countries  in  which  the  Leaders  of  the  Reformation  did 
not  Succeed  in  Setting  up  a  State  Cnurch,  and  in  which  a 
Large  Portion  of  the  Nation  Remained  Catholic  and  anoth- 
er portion  were  Divided  into  Separate  Religious  Communi- 
ties— In  Catholic  Countries  Civil  Liberty  is  Ancient,  Absol- 
utism Modern — The  Catholic  Church  alone  is  Capable  of 
Resisting  in  the  midst  of  a  Nation  that  Contains  the  Dis- 
solving Element  by  Virtue  of  the  Civil  Liberty  of  Express- 
ing all  Imaginable  Opinions,  and  of  Practising  every  kind 
of  Worship — Demonstration  of  these  Theses  by  Facts. 

M.  de  Laveleye's  essay  is  devoid  of  method.  One 
must  read  and  re-read  it  to  discover  the  connection  of 
his  arguments.  The  author  mingles  and  intermingles 
the  most  dissimilar  subjects,  and  renders  very  arduous 
the  task  of  his  best  disposed  adversaries.  This  disor- 
der of  his  ideas  naturally  manifests  itself  in  the  ex- 
pression of  his  thoughts.  Thus,  the  all-important 
question  of  the  Catholic  Church  and  civil  liberties  is 
treated  by  him  in  three  or  four  different  places  with 
great  levity  and  without  logical  sequence. 

In  the  chapter  which  I  now  take  up,  and  which  re- 
sembles a  book  of  notes  from  badly  digested  readings, 
he  lays  down  the  questions  imperfectly ;  repeats  errors 
and  even  calumnies  a  thousand  times  refuted ;  takes  no 


192       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  £EOPLES. 

account  of  the  immense  labors  of  the  historical  criti- 
cism of  our  times;  incorrectly  defines  principles  and 
institutions  which  he  afterwards  takes  the  facile 
pleasure  of  blaming,  criticising,  and  even  execrating ; 
ignores  even  the  whole  of  the  doctrines  which  form  the 
basis  of  the  Keformation ;  reasons  upon  a  fantastical 
Protestantism ;  refutes  Calvin  with  the  aid  of  Luther, 
and  Luther  by  means  of  Calvin,  etc. 

I  ask  the  reader's  pardon  if,  in  my  turn,  the  necessi- 
ties of  this  discussion  shall  compel  me  to  take  the  lib- 
erty of  refuting  some  charges.  However,  I  will  exert 
every  effort  to  avoid  them. 

M.  de  Laveleye  pretends  that  the  Reformation  has 
favored  the  development  of  civil  liberty,  whilst  the 
Catholic  Church  inevitably  leads  nations  to  despotism 
and  anarchy.  The  natural  government  of  Protest- 
ant peoples  would  be  the  representative  regime,  whilst 
Catholics  are  born  for  absolutism.  This  thesis  is  so 
diluted  by  the  author,  and  so  feebly  developed,  that  I 
believe  it  useless  to  follow  his  flimsy  argumentation. 
His  principal  authority  against  the  Catholics  in  this 
matter  is  Bossuet,  the  theologian  of  the  Gallican 
Church,  a  Church  which  has  affinities  with  Josephism 
and  Liberalism.  If  I  were  inclined  to  enter  into  a 
discussion  on  this  point  I  could  easily  prove  that  the 
passages  quoted  from  the  Bishop  of  Meaux  do  not  say 
all  that  M.  de  Laveleye  thinks  they  do.  I  will  content 
myself  with  denying  the  authority  of  Bossuet  in  mat- 
ters of  civil-ecclesiastical  law,  and  I  will  abandon  to 
M.  de  Laveleye  the  elegant  and  literary  Csesarism  of 
Louis  XIV.,  and  even  the  whole  political  developmen 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTIES.  193 

of  the  French  monarchy  since  Louis  XI.  (Every  one 
knows  that  MM.  Michelet,  L.  Blanc,  Quinet,  Esqui- 
ros,  etc.,  already  rank  this  latter  among  the  precur- 
sors of  the  French  Bevolution.) 

As  to  the  very  basis  of  his  thesis,  M.  de  Laveleye 
does  not  appear  to  have  reflected  much  upon  it,  else 
he  would  at  least  know  by  name  the  work  of  Dr.  Doll- 
inger,  his  present  ally  ("The  Church  and  the 
Churches"),  and  those  of  M.  L.  Martin  and  Mr.  Mar- 
shall, already  mentioned.  I  am  going  to  make  ex- 
tracts from  these  learned  writers  and  copy  them,  in  a 
certain  sense,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  a  rapid  demon- 
stration of  the  following  propositions  : 

1.  Wherever  the  Keformation  has  triumphed  it  has 
set  up  a  State  Church,*  restrained  civil  liberty,  and 
forced  the  nation  to  recede  instead  of  advancing  on  the 
path  of  political  progress. 

2.  Civil  and  political  liberties    have  relatively  flour- 
ished only  in  countries  where  the  leaders  of  the  Be- 
formation  did  not  succeed  in  erecting  a  State  Church, 
in  which  a  large  portion  of  the  people  remained  Catho- 
lic, and  another  portion  was  divided  into  separate  re- 
ligious societies. 

*  Beligious  unity,  maintained  by  political  institutions,  is  an 
incalculable  benefit.  The  Catholic  Church  has  never  ceased 
to  proclaim  this  truth.  But  when  Protestants  establish  State 
Churches,  they  act  in  opposition  to  the  fundamental  principle 
of  their  religious  rebellion.  With  Protestants  the  State 
Church  represents  to  some  extent  an  ecclesiastical  State,  whilst 
in  the  Catholic  teaching,  religious  unity  is  considered  not  as  a 
temporal  means  of  government,  but  as  a  principle,  directing  and 
superior  to  it.  With  Protestants  the  State  Church  is  an  in- 
strument of  the  State, 


194  THE   FUTUBE   OF   CATHOLIC   PEOPLES. 

3.  In  Catholic  count  rcccivi!  liberty  is  ancient,  ab- 
solutism modern. 

4.  In  the  midst  of  a  nation,  the  Catholic  Church 
alone  is  capable  of  offering  a  religious  resistance,  as  a 
form  of  worship,  to  the  dissolving  element  contained 
in  the  civil  liberty  of  expressing  all  imaginable  sorts 
of  opinions  and  of  practising  every  species  of  worship. 
In  drawing  up  this  conclusion  I  do  not  pretend  to  say 
that  this  civil  liberty  is  favorable  to  the  propagation  of 
the  truth,  much  less  that  it  is  essential  to  this  propa- 
gation.    I  simply  state  a  fact. 

Before  the  sixteenth  century,  civil  toleration  in  re- 
ligious matters  was  unknown  in  European  politics,  un- 
less in  Rome, where  the  Jewish  religion  has  been  civilly 
tolerated  in  the  Ghetto  ever  since  the  fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  Outside  the  Universal  Church  there  never 
were  any  except  national  religions,  and  these  are  in- 
tolerant in  their  very  political  essence. 

After  the  coronation  of  Charlemagne  at  Rome,  Eu- 
rope wa.s  considered  as  a  Christian  republic,  practising 
the  worship  of  the  Universal  Church,  and  there  could 
be  no  question  of  introducing  another  without  ruin- 
ing the  very  constitution  of  the  Holy  Empire.  The 
Reformation  was  brought  about  in  the  name  of  liber- 
ty of  conscience,  but  in  reality  it  was  everywhere  the 
bitterest  enemy  of  this  liberty.  Wherever  the  Luth- 
erans and  Calvinists  have  had  the  mastery,  they  have 
suppressed  it. 

In  England,  Ireland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Branden- 
burg and  at  Geneva,  all  the  "  Reformers,"  I  say  all, 
regarded  the  oppression  of  the  Catholic  Church  an<J 


THE  BEFOBMATION  AND   CIVIL  LIBERTIES.  195 

its  destruction  as  the  practical  conclusion  of  their 
teaching  :  people  went  so  far  as  to  render  punishable 
with  death  the  exercise  of  the  Catholic  religion  in 
England,  Sweden,  at  Geneva,  etc.  These  sectaries 
acted  in  the  same  manner  against  the  dissenting  sects. 
Melanchton,  the  mildest  of  the  "Kef ormers,  "demand- 
ed that  the  Anabaptists  should  expiate  their  devotion 
with  their  b!ood,  and  advocated  corporal  punishment 
against  the  Catholics,  because  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
secular  power  to  announce  the  divine  law  and  cause  it 
to  be  observed.  Calvin  declared  to  the  Duke  of  Som- 
erset, the  Regent  of  England,  that  he  ought  to  extermin- 
ate by  the  sword  all  those  who  would  oppose  the  estab- 
lishment of  Protestantism  and  particularly  the  Catho- 
lics. According  to  this  apostle  of  "  civil  toleration," 
the  punishment  of  death  is  based  on  the  principle  that 
we  cannot  dispute  the  authority  of  the  prince  over  the 
Church  without  being  guilty  of  an  attack  upon  royal- 
ty, which  was  established  by  God.  His  friend  Beza,  a 
preacher  of  the  principles  of  liberty  of  conscience,  main- 
tained that  the  Anti-Trinitarians  ought  to  be  hanged 
without  ceremony,  even  when  they  had  retracted.  Lord 
Burghley,  the  minister  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  that 
"  virgin  "  queen  who  condemned  a  form  of  worship 
to  the  "  toleration  "  of  the  hangman,  had  for  princi- 
ple that  the  security  of  the  State  was  menaced  if  two 
religions  were  tolerated  in  it.  The  chancellor  Bacon, 
himself,  thought  that  a  government  had  reached  the 
•'  utmost  "  limits  of  toleration  when  it  contented  itself 
with  exacting  an  exterior  adhesion  to  the  dominant  re- 
ligion without  penetrating  into  the  conscience.  It 


196       THE  FUTUEE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

would  be  impossible  to  stigmatize  too  severely  this 
hypocrisy  of  the  authors  of  a  religious  revolution,  un- 
dertaken under  the  pretence  of  "  enfranchising  the 
human  mind." 

Catholics  were  at  least  faithful  to  the  political 
traditions  of  their  countries  and  the  naturally  intoler- 
ant principles  of  their  faith,  which  is  the  absolute 
truth,  against  which  no  right  can  ba  theoretically  in- 
voked, because  there  is  no  right  against  the  Eight. 
They  defended  themselves  energetically  everywhere, 
and  prevented,  wherever  they  could,  the  introduction 
of  the  Protestant  errors,  because  they  knew  before- 
hand the  lot  which  awaited  them,  in  case  the  inno- 
vators should  triumph.  The  "Keformers  "  went  so 
far  as  to  contest  the  right  of  those  princes  to  reign  who 
did  not  admit  their  heresy  and  to  declare  their  deposition 
allowable  and  even  necessary.  The  "  tolerant  "  Knox, 
whose  apology  Bismarck,  who  knew  what  he  was  say 
ing,  pronounced  the  other  day,  distinguished  himself 
particularly  in  the  application  of  this  abominable  doc- 
trine. 

"  Luther  and  Calvin  do  not  preach  resistance  to  ty- 
ranny," exclaims  M.  de  Laveleye  ;  "  they  rather  con- 
demn it  and  strongly  advocate  obedience."  But  his- 
tory teaches  that  Luther,  in  a  work  in  which  he  boasts 
very  loudly  of  the  "  evangelical  liberties,"  incited 
the  peasants  to  rise  up  against  their  princes.  When 
the  War  of  the  Peasants  menaced  the  existence  of  the 
Protestant  principalities,  Luther's  protectors  asked 
him  to  intervene,  and  this  pioneer  of  toleration  wrote 
a  fresh  pamphlet,  as  we  now  say,  to  curse  the  peasants 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTIES.  197 

for  having  so  well  applied  the  conclusions  of  his  former 
writings.  These  two  contradictory  lampoons  deserve 
to  be  placed  side  by  side  with  the  famous  dispensation 
to  cover  the  bigamy  of  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse. 

After  these  short  but  decisive  general  considerations, 
let  us  cast  a  cursory  glance  at  the  Protestant  peoples 
and  the  civil  institutions  which  their  religious  novel- 
ties inspired.  Look  first  at  Sweden,  whose  brutal  in- 
tolerance and  unheard  of  immorality  I  am  already 
tired  of  citing.  A  law  ordained  that  every  man  who 
should  remain  more  than  one  year  outside  the  com- 
munion of  the  national  Church  should  be  banished. 
Banishment  was  also  to  be  the  fate  of  him  who  would 
employ,  in  theological  matters,  expressions  "  which 
might  shock  the  national  Church/1  and  would  not  re- 
tract them.  In  Sweden  the  king  is  "  the  supreme  in- 
spector and  terrestrial  head  of  the  Church.  He 
unites  in  himself  the  highest  temporal  and  the  highest 
spiritual  power.  He  causes  his  power  to  be  exercised 
over  the  Church  by  the  administration  of  the  royal 
cabinet,  of  which  the  minister  of  foreign  affairs 
is  president."  Undoubtedly  the  first  time  that  Ber- 
nadotte  exercised  such  functions  he  must  have  made 
great  efforts  to  preserve  his  equanimity.  When  Gus- 
tavus  Vasa  wished  to  pervert  the  inhabitants  of 
Helsingland,  he  wrote  to  them  that,  unless  they  be- 
came Lutherans  on  the  spot,  he  would  order  an  open- 
ing to  be  made  in  the  ice  on  Lake  Deel  in  which  ne 
would  have  them  all  drowned.  The  sword,  imprison- 
ment, exile  and,  in  these  latter  times,  fines  have  al- 
ways been  considered  in  Sweden  as  means  of  civil 


198       THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

toleration,  If  M.  de  Laveleye  taught  in  a  Swedish 
university,  he  would  be  severely  punished  for  offering 
the  slightest  insult  to  the  religion  of  the  State,  and 
w  ;ulJ,  perhaps,  be  obliged  to  seek  for  refuge  in  Bel- 
gium under  the  paternal  aegis  of  the  government  of 
this  intolerant  M.  J.  Malou.  Charles  IX  and  his  son 
Gu  tavus  Adolphus  had  Catholics  who  were  attached 
to  their  faith  beheaded.  When,  at  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century  and  in  the  beginning  of  the 
e  ghtt  enth,  several  Swedes  like  Ulstadius,  Schaefer, 
Ulhagius  and  Molin,  abandoned  the  doctrine  of  im- 
putation, which  is  the  foundation  of  Lutheranism,  and 
spoke  of  the  necessity  of  good  works,  Schaefer  and 
Ulhagius  were  put  to  death,  Molin  was  exiled, 
Ulstadius  was  shut  up  in  a  prison  where  he  meditated 
for  thirty  years  upon  the  toleration  of  the  Swedish 
Church. 

The  introduction  of  Protestantism  into  the  coun- 
tries of  northern  Europe  resembles  the  workings  of 
an  immense  "ring,"  organized  by  a  coalition  of  de- 
praved priests  and  plundering  laymen,  of  the  king  and 
the  nobility  who  coveted  uncontrollable  power  and  the 
Church's  property,  of  regulars  weary  of  their  rule, 
weary  of  continence,  weary  of  Lent  etc.,  and  of  se- 
culars desirous  of  civilly  "regularizing"  their  immor- 
ality. This  "reformation"  must  be  studied  on  the 
spot,  with  the  light  of  the  history  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  with  the  intelligence  of  ancient  institutions 
and  "modern  progress."  I  have  studied  this  question, 
and  I  might  speak  of  it  at  great  length.  The  people 
have  been  literally  deceived. 


THE   BEFOEMATION   AND   CIVIL  L1BEETIES.  199 

Gustavus  Vasa  always  refused  to  acknowledge  that 
he  was  introducing  a  new  doctrine.  Fifty  yeare  later 
a  portion  of  the  people  still  believed  that  they  were 
Catholics.  It  was  only  gradually  that  Sweden  be- 
came conscious  of  being  a  Lutheran  country.  The 
Lutheran  Church  became  in  Sweden  an  instrument  of 
administration  and  of  police,  an  "appendage  to  the  nu- 
merous class  of  military  and  civil  functionaries,"  says 
the  Swedish  historian,  Geijer.  Moreover,  what- 
ever M.  de  Laveleye  may  say  of  the  profound  peace 
which  Protestant  peoples  enjoy,  Sweden  has  been  in  a 
perpetual  state  of  revolution  for  300  years.  The  an- 
archy of  which  contemporary  Spain  has  too  often  been 
the  example  is  only  child's  play  compared  with  the 
Swedish  revolutions,  which  deposed  two  kings,  Sigis- 
mund  and  Gustavus  IV.,  and  killed  three,  Eric  XIV., 
Charles  XII.  and  Gustavus  HL  Finally,  the  Swedes 
have  driven  their  love  of  sedition  so  far  as  to  repudi- 
ate their  national  dynasty,  and  give  up  their  kingdom 
to  a  soldier  of  fortune,  an  offspring  of  the  French 
[Revolution.  In  Sweden  the  Reformation  has  pro- 
duced no  result  but  the  domination  of  the  nobility, 
of  which  royalty  was  the  complacent  instrument.  To 
get  rid  of  the  national  masses,  they  erected  royalty 
into  an  absolute  power,  in  conformity  with  the  pre- 
cepts of  the  Renaissance  and  of  the  apostles  of  the 
Reformation.  In  1680  the  States  declared  that  the 
king  is  bound  to  no  form  of  government.  In  1682  the 
same  States  proclaimed  that  they  regarded  it  as  an 
"absurdity"  that  the  king  should  be  obliged  by  statutes 
k>  first  hear  the  StateSo  In  1693  royalty  was  declared 


200  THE  FUTTJBE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES* 

absolute.  Charles  XII.  sent  word  one  day  to  the  Diet 
that  he  would  send  his  boots  to  preside  over  it,  "or  to 
have  them  blackened,"  as  they  would  say  in  Liberal 
Belgium.  After  the  murder  of  this  amiable  free- 
thinker, "Swedish  liberty,"  that  is  to  say,  the  dom- 
ination of  the  nobility,  was  reestablished,  and  the 
most  scandalous  revolutions  succeeded  one  another 
until  the  murder  of  Gustavus.  Lutheran  Sweden 
was  then  nothing  more  than  a  "gambling  house  of  in- 
trigue and  political  corruption."  Finland  became 
Russian,  and  the  kingdom  found  a  more  or  less  re- 
paratory  political  rest  only  in  the  arms  of  a  French 
Catholic  general  who  thought  that  the  crown  was  well 
worth  an  abjuration.  Sweden  is  still  asleep.  With- 
out Linnseus,  Berzelius,  and  Geijer  it  would  be  to-day 
as  little  known  among  us  as  the  Indians  of  Lake  Mara- 
caibo.  Behold  what  Protestantism  has  made  of  the 
land  of  the  sainted  King  Eric  IX.  M.  de  Laveleye, 
erase  Sweden  from  your  enchanting  table  of  civil 
liberty! 

Cancel  Denmark  also.  Molesworth,  an  English- 
man, who  was  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  history 
of  the  Protestants  of  the  North,  wrote  so  long  ago  as 
1692  :  "  In  the  Eoman  Catholic  religion,  with  its  su- 
preme head  who  is  at  Borne,  there  is  a  principle  of  op- 
position to  unlimited  political  power.  But  in  the 
North  the  Lutheran  Church  is  completely  subject  to 
the  civil  power  and  reduced  to  a  state  of  servitude. 
All  the  peoples  of  Protestant  countries  have  lost  their 
liberties  since  they  changed  their  religion  for  a  better." 
In  Denmark  Lujbheranism  had  completely  triumphed. 


THE  BEFOBMATION  AND   OTVXL  LIBERTIES.           201 

What  was  the  result  of  this  victory  ?  Herr  Barthold,  a 
l^rotestant  historian  of  Berlin,  replies  :  "The  peas- 
ant was  anew  submitted  to  the  savage  like  a  dog  ;  the 
citizens,  deprived  of  every  means  of  defence,  groaned 
beneath  the  weight  of  oppression  and  the  military 
regime.  The  North  was  Lutheran,but  the  king  and  the 
nobility  shared  the  sovereignty  between  them,  and 
the  children  of  the  preachers  themselves  and  of  the 
sacristans  were  serfs."  The  nobility  seized  not  only 
upon  the  ecclesiastical  property  but  even  on 
the  free  lands  of  the  peasantry.  Mr.  Allen,  in  his 
History  of  Denmark,  which  the  Academy  of  Copen- 
hagen has  crowned,  and  acknowledged  to  be  the  best 
book  of  its  kind,  says:  "  The  farmers  of  the  great  eccle- 
siastical domains  had  to  exchange  the  mild  administra- 
tion of  the  clergy  for  the  crushing  yoke  of  the  nobil- 
ity. The  services  were  arbitrarily  multiplied,  the 
peasants  were  treated  as  serfs.  Agriculture,  being 
neglected,  fell  below  the  level  which  it  had  reached  in 
the  Middle  Ages.  The  population  diminished.  The 
country  was  covered  with  deserted  habitations."  In  a 
short  time  the  clergy  and  the  middle  classes  in  their 
turn  felt  in  their  civil  capacity  the  progress 
of  the  Eeformation.  Eight  or  nine  hun- 
dred nobles  reigned  as  masters  over  a  country 
which  was  no  longer  defended  by  the  apos- 
tolical liberty  of  which  the  Catholic  Church  has  the  in- 
corruptible deposit.  Christian  IV.  (1588-164:8)  tried 
to  break  this  absolutism.  He  failed.  The  revolution 
of  1660  was  more  successful ;  the  despotism  of  the 
nobility  was  overturned,  but  the  great  body  of  the 


202      THE  FUTUBE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

people  gained  nothing  by  it.  Frederic  HE.  and  his  suc- 
cessors declared  themselves  absolute  kings.  A  law  of 
16G5  proclaimed  that  the  king  had  not  to  take  any  oath, 
nor  to  acknowledge  an  obligation  of  any  kind  whatever, 
but  could  do  all  that  he  pleased  with  a  full  and  entire 
authority.  What  a  disgrace  for  a  people  !  Let  men 
compare  with  this  ignominy  the  oath  of  the  Catholic 
kings  of  Aragon  before  the  Kenaissance,  the  obligations 
of  the  kings  of  Castile,  our  Belgian  charters  and  those 
of  the  Basque  provinces,  which  are  still  in  existence, 
and,  with  his  hand  on  his  conscience,  let  him  make  a 
choice.  In  1687  the  misery  of  the  Danish  peasants 
was  such  that  a  fifth  of  the  properties  formerly  culti- 
vated by  them  remained  fallow.  In  1702  Frederic  VI. 
abolished  serfage  to  make  way  for  another  sort  of 
tyranny:  the  peasant  "was  attached  to  the  soil." 
During  the  eighteenth  century  entire  villages  disap- 
peared in  the  gulf  of  misery  caused  by  an  illiterate  and 
shameless  absolutism.  Schools  were  lacking.  In  1766 
popular  instruction  was,  so  to  say,  null.  At  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century  scarcely  one  person  out  of  every 
twenty  knew  how  to  read.  In  1805  personal  liberty 
was  accorded,  for  the  first  time,  to  20,000  (I  say  twenty 
thousand)  families  of  serfs.  In  a  petition  addressed  in 
1714  to  King  Frederic  IV.,  the  bishops  of  Norway,  the 
country  of  St.  Olaf  II.,  already  made  the  following 
avowal :  "  With  the  exception  of  a  small  number  of  the 
children  of  God,  there  is  between  us  and  our  pagan 
ancestors  only  one  difference,  that  is  that  we  bear  the 
name  of  Christians."  The  provincial  States  re-estab- 
lished by  Frederic  VI.  did  not  limit  the  royal  absolut 


THE  REFORMATION  AND   CIVIL  LIBERTIES.  203 

ism  in  Denmark.  An  observer  favorable  to  the  Danes, 
the  Scotchman  Laing,  whom  I  have  already  cited,  made 
this  remark  in  1839  : 

"  As  the  Danes  are  completely  passive  with  regard 
to  politics,  and  never  raise  their  voice  to  discuss  their 
own  affairs,  they  are  yet  found  to  be,  in  spite  of  the 
great  number  of  excellent  ordinances  decreed  by  the 
government,  in  the  same  condition  in  which  they  were 
in  1660.  They  are  two  centuries  behind  the  age,  com- 
pared with  the  Scotch,  the  Dutch,  and  the  Belgians, 
.with  whom  at  first  sight  they  might  be  compared  under 
the  relation  of  population  and  their  general  situation." 

From  the  Danes  let  us  pass  to  their  co-religion- 
ists, the  German  Lutherans.  In  Germany,  says  the 
Prussian  Protestant  historian,  Herr  H.  Leo,  "the  na- 
tural result  of  the  reformation  was  that  this  power  of 
the  princes  and  the  cities  of  the  empire  (that  of  the 
functionaries)  increased  considerably,  and  that,  on 
the  contrary,  the  liberty  of  the  mediate  nobility,  of  the 
peasants  and  that  of  the  State  was  annihilated."  It 
would  be  really  too  long  and  even  fastidious  to  show 
here  the  development  of  this  conclusion,  unfortunately 
too  true,  in  the  different  Protestant  States  :  Mecklen- 
burg where  serf  age  was  abolished  only  in  1829;Pomer- 
ania  where  the  States  General  were  suppressed  almost 
immediately  under  the  first  Protestant  duke;  the 
duchies  of  Hanover  and  Brunswick  where  the  oral 
procedure  and  the  States  General  disappeared  before 
the  absolutism  of  the  prince,  and  where  the  historian 
would  find  nothing  to  glean,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  but  the  vulgar  gossip  of  the  table 


204:      THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

and  the  alcove,  if  the  illustrious  memory  of  Leibnitz, 
who  had  no  repugnance  for  Catholic  sentiments,  did 
not  hover  over  this  country,  etc.,  etc.  Time  and 
space  are  wanting  to  me.  Let  us  speak  only  of  the 
electorate  of  Brandenburg,  the  model  of  the  States 
that  are  "defenders  of  civil  liberties  and  of  tolera- 
tion." 

The  reader  will  remember  that  the  malady  of  the 
Reformation  was  innoculated  only  by  degrees  into 
Brandenburg,  and  into  Prussia,  which  was  wrested,  as 
is  well  known,  from  the  Teutonic  Order.  During  the 
whole  of  the  sixteenth  century  there  was  a  certain 
amount  of  hesitation  in  the  Hohenzollern  princes.  The 
weak  Duke  Albert,  the  Elector  Joachim  and  his  son, 
John-George,  on  account  of  their  disorders,  had  need 
of  the  concurrence  of  the  States  which  served  the 
cause  of  good  as  well  as  that  of  evil  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  Even  from  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  convocation  of  the  States  was  at  first  in- 
terrupted ;  after  1656  no  diet  was  ever  again  convoked 
— whilst  the  French  were  ruining  the  Palatinate,  ac- 
cording to  the  military  custom  of  the  lansquenets  and 
reiters  of  the  time,  the  "great"  Elector  was  adminis- 
tratively devastating  his  own  States.  His  government 
differed  in  no  respect  from  those  of  Sweden  and  Den- 
mark, either  in  despotism  or  in  grossness.  Prus- 
sia, according  to  the  expression  of  the  historian  Sten- 
zel,  was  on  the  way  to  become  one  of  those  Asiatic 
States  in  which  despotism  crushes  everything  that  is 
noble  and  beautiful.  War  and  the  passion  for  the 
chase,  which  the  Elector  satisfied  by  employing  there- 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTIES.  205 

in  3,000  men,  were  the  two  "ideas"  which  the  nation 
had  to  favor  while  exhausting  its  strength.  Thus 
were  the  slavery  and  serfage  which  were  oppressing 
the  peasant  rigorously  maintained.  Frederic  I.,  the 
first  king  in  Prussia,  by  the  gift  of  the  Emperor  Leo- 
pold of  Hapsburg,  continued  the  same  system  of  "tol- 
eration." It  was  he  who  invented  for  his  court,  copied 
after  that  of  Versailles,  the  charge  of  the 
mistress.  The  Countess  of  Wartenburg  had  to 
perform  the  duties  of  this  honorary  charge, 
to  walk  every  day  in  company  with  the 
EjDg  for  half  an  hour  in  the  royal  gardens,  in  presence 
of  the  courtiers,  the  ancestors  of  those  who  at  present 
express  such  fine  phrases  on  the  corruption  of  the 
French.  Frederic  William  I.  (1713-1740),  drove  abso- 
lutism to  puerility.  His  anecdotes  are  found  in  all  the 
humorous  almanacs  ;  I  need  not  repeat  them.  Under 
this  ignoble  reign  the  Protestant  pastors  were  less  than 
corporals.  I  suppose  that  there  is  no  serious  writer  in 
Europe  who  would  dare  to  transform  Frederic  II.  into 
a  protector  of  civil  liberty.  A  disciple  of  Voltaire,  who 
received  one  day  from  his  Prussian  majesty,  or  by  his 
orders,  a  branch  of  green  wood,  could  alone  be  satisfied 
with  the  political  principles  of  this  witty  and  mischie- 
vous king.  Frederic  II.  granted  but  one  liberty :  un- 
der his  reign,  each  one  could  "save  himself  after  his 
own  manner,"  provided,  however,  that  the  "majesty 
of  the  laws"  enacted  by  this  despot  was  not  interfered 
with.  Is  not  this  saving  one's  self  after  one's  own 
manner  the  crowning  point  of  liberalism  for  the  im- 
mense majority  of  the  present  adversaries  of  the  Oath- 


206       THE  FUTUBE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES 

olic  Church?  Toellner  cites  a  work  of  Frederic  II.* 
in  which  this  freethinker  clearly  reveals  that  the  prin- 
cipal cause  of  his  contempt  for  Christianity  came  from 
the  disgust  with  which  ecclesiastical  history,  as  pre- 
sented by  the  Protestants,  inspired  him.  For  him  this 
history  was  only  a  drama  played  by  knaves  and  hypo- 
crites, at  the  expense  of  the  masses,  their  dupes  and 
victims. 

I  here  stop  in  the  expression  of  the  thoughts  with 
which  the  later  history  of  Prussia  inspires  me,  in  the 
point  of  view  of  civil  liberty.  We  are  no  longer  free, 
even  in  Belgium,  to  appreciate  this  history  correctly. 
Look  at  what  is  taking  place  under  our  eyes  ;  and  if  you 
have  the  hardihood  to  transform  what  you  see  into  a 
work  of  civil  liberty,  I  will  call  you  pharisees.  Not 
only  will  I  discuss  no  more,  but  I  will  prepare  myself 
for  self-defence,  as  if  my  personal  liberty  were  menaced, 
just  exactly  as  in  the  glorious  times  of  Luther,  Calvin, 
-and  the  Gueux  of  Holland. 

When  "civil  liberty"  is  not  made  to  consist  merely 
in  the  gross  hatred  of  the  Catholic  Church,  we  may  ac- 
knowledge that  the  Belgian  provinces,  from  the  depar- 
ture of  the  Duke  of  Alva  to  the  importation  of  the  "im- 
mortal principles  of  '89"  on  the  point  of  the  bayonets 
of  the  army  of  Dumouriez,  enjoyed  much  more  freedom 
than  the  Calvinistic  Netherlands.  The  recent  labors 
of  Professor  Poullet  of  Louvain  throw  floods  of  light 
on  this  historical  point.  During  two  centuries  Holland 

*  Preface  to  the  book  entitled :    Abrtge  de  VMstoire  ecclesia*- 
tique  de  Fkury.    Berne  (Berlin),  1767. — M.  de  Trades  is  the  au 
thor  of  this  book,  and  Frederick  II.  wrote  the  preface. 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  CIVLL  LIBERTIES.  207 

was  torn  by  the  spirit  of  faction,  and  it  was  saved  from 
the  absolutism  of  the  House  of  Orange  only  by  the  par- 
tial failure  of  the  Calvinists.  If  Holland  had  become 
entirely  Calvinist  it  would  have  experienced  the  polit- 
ical fate  of  Sweden,  Prussia,  and  Denmark.  "The 
Reformed  Church  of  Holland,"  says  the  Protestant 
Niebuhr,  "has  been  grossly  tyrannical,  and  can  be 
praised  neither  for  intellect  nor  for  the  common  sense 
of  its  doctrines.  Calvinism  has  shown  everywhere,  in 
Holland,  in  Scotland,  and  at  Geneva,  a  desire  for  blood 
equal,  at  least,  to  that  of  the  Inquisition,  and  has  no- 
where revealed  a  single  one  of  the  merits  of  the  Cath- 
olic religion."  The  absolutism  of  Calvinism  and  of 
the  House  of  Orange  was  stopped  by  the  formation  of 
new  sects  and  by  the  obstinate  fidelity  of  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  people  to  the  Catholic  Church.  The  Cath- 
olics, deprived  of  all  political  rights,  always  served  as 
a  support  to  the  opposition  party,  and  this  rendered 
impossible  the  omnipotence  of  the  dominant  Church. 
The  execution  of  Barneveld  and  the  murder  of  the 
brothers  De  Witt  remind  us  also  that  Protestant  Hol- 
land is  not  in  a  position  to  reproach  Spain,  for  example, 
with  the  number  of  its  revolutions.  Towards  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century  the  fury  of  the  rebels  called 
in  even  foreign  intervention,  a  thing  which  the  Catho- 
lic Spaniards  have  never  tolerated.  The  Dutch  have 
allowed  to  come  among  them  successively  the  Prussians, 
the  French  and  the  English.  In  1787  the  Prussians, 
masters  of  Amsterdam,  protected  the  Orangists.  In 
1795,  a  comrade  of  Bernadotte  reduced  Holland  to  the 
condition  of  a  chapel  of  ease  to  the  French  Republic. 


208      THE  FUTUKE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES, 

The  Dutch  were  so  enervated  by  their  political  revolu- 
tions that  they  even  mimicked  the  Jacobins  of  Paris. 

In  the  point  of  view  of  civil  liberties  Holland  offers, 
however,  a  more  consoling  spectacle  than  all  the  other 
Protestant  nations.  Calvinism  was  the  State  religion 
but  the  States  General  guaranteed,  in  different  degrees 
and  according  to  the  different  epochs,  a  certain  liberty 
to  dissenters,  Arminians,  Lutherans,  Mennonites  and 
other  sects  that  came  from  abroad.  The  Catholics 
alone,  forming  two-fifths  of  the  population,  were  op- 
pressed, and  even  pitilessly  so,  down  to  the  present  gen- 
eration. The  States  General  protected  Spinoza  and 
Bayle,  but  they  proscribed  the  religious  liberties  of 
the  coreligionists  of  Fe'ne'lon  and  Malebranche.  All 
the  filth  of  the  literature  of  the  eighteenth  century  has 
been  reprinted  in  Holland;  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  would 
not  be  permitted  to  preach  there. 

It  is  in  Scotland  that  we  observe  most  clearly  what 
becomes  of  fabricated  religions.  Lord  Clarendon  said 
in  1660  of  the  Scotch  :  "  All  their  religion  consists  in 
having  a  horror  of  ^Papacy."  To  encounter  horrors  of 
this  kind  it  is  not  necessary  to  visit  the  country  of 
Knox.  Few  "  apostles  of  toleration "  have  driven 
ha  tred  of  the  truth  as  far  as  has  this  fanatic.  Like  the 
other  "  Beformers,"  he  declared  that  it  belonged  spe- 
cially to  the  civil  power  to  regulate  all  that  concerns 
religion.  He  cau  sed  the  punishment  of  death  to  be 
decreed  against  any  one  who  would  twice  celebrate  the 
holy  sacrifice  of  the  mass.  Under  the  inspiration  of 
Calvinism  an  ecclesiastical  tyranny  was  organised  in 
Scotland  of  which  we  can  hardly  form  an  idea  at  pres- 


THE  KEFOBMATION  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTIES.  209 

ent,  and  of  which  we  ought  to  read  the  description  in 
the  "Domef  tic  Annals"  of  Mr.  Robert  Chambers: 
the  private  life  of  citizens  was  subjected  to  an  Asiatic 
inquisition.  Nowhere,  not  even  at  Geneva,  was  such 
a  despotism  ever  seen.  It  was  broken  only  in  1713, 
when  Parliament  refused  to  it  the  support  of  the  secu- 
lar arm.  Fortunately,  also,  the  crown,  supported  by 
the  Parliament,  forced  the  Calvinists  to  tolerate  the  in- 
troduction of  the  Episcopal  Church. 

It  is  in  reality  only  since  1735  that  there  has  reigned  a 
"  certain  "  liberty  in  Scotland.  Then,  and  then  only, 
the  poor  Highlanders,  who  remained  attached  to  the 
Catholic  faith,  were  permitted  to  descend  from  their 
mountains  to  practise  the  religion  of  their  ancestors 
and  to  teach  England  the  spiritual  power  of  the  religion 
of  Edward  the  Confessor. 

I  have  said  enough  of  England.  Of  the  Puritans 
and  Quakers  there  is  no  more  question  now,  and  M. 
de  Laveleye  seeks  in  vain  to  shape  a  pedestal  for  them. 
No  one  around  him  will  understand  him,  not  even  Mr. 
Gladstone.  No  more  will  I  lose  time  in  describing  the 
anarchy  of  the  Protestant  sects,  or  (as  Dr.  Dollinger 
formerly  put  it)  of  the  Protestant  denominations  in  the 
United  States.  I  will  only  recall  a  memorable  fact : 
since  the  wild  preachings  of  Luther  a  single  and  only 
one  sincere  attempt  at  a  regime  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  was  attempted  in  the  world  before  Washington's 
time,  and  by  whom  ?  By  Catholics.  I  mean  the 
foundation  of  Maryland  (Terra  Marise),  by  Lord  Balti- 
more. And  who  destroyed  this  regime  in  which  this 
illustrious  Catholic  invited  all  the  Protestant  sects  to 


210       THE  FUTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

take  part  ?    The  Puritans,  Quakers,  &c, — Protestants. 

In  so  hasty  a  sketch  as  this  I  can  only  point  out  the 
principal  facts.  I  imagine,  however,  that  those  which 
I  have  mentioned  will  suffice  to  prove  the  rigorous  ex- 
actitude of  my  two  former  propositions,  namely,  that 
Protestantism  has  ruined  civil  liberty  wherever  it  has 
had  the  preponderance  ;  and  that  in  a  political  point  of 
view  it  has  provoked  a  retrograde  movement  among 
the  peoples  that  have  experienced  its  fatal  influences. 

In  Catholic  nations  liberty  is  old,  despotism  modern. 
Eogland  is  the  living  proof  of  this  proposition.  The 
country  which  at  present  gives  the  clearest  idea  of 
what  European  peoples  would  be  if  Protestantism  or 
the  Kenaissance  had  not  stifled  among  them  the  devel- 
opment of  the  institutions  that  sprung  from  the  great 
and  fruitful  movement  of  the  thirteenth  century,  is  the 
united  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  All  the 
civil  liberties  of  England,  save  that  of  worship,  which 
dates  from  our  age,  existed  before  the  birth  of  Luther. 
England  alone  escaped  the  evil  influences  of  the  pagan 
Renaissance,  which  the  Catholic  Church  has  combated 
and  still  combats.  If  Great  Britain  separated  from  the 
Church  of  Home,  it  was  under  a  form  which  still  ap- 
pears too  Catholic  to  the  reformers  of  our  time.  In 
effect,  the  Episcopal  system  of  England,  essentially 
Catholic,  is  the  negation  of  the  fundamental  principle 
of  Protestantism.  All  the  fruitful  things  of  ELgland 
date  from  the  Catholic  ages  or  are  essentially  Catholic  ; 
all  that  the  present  situation  of  England  includes  of 
dangerous  is  a  result  of  the  religious  revolution  com- 
manded by  Henry  VIII. 


THE  KEFOK&ATION  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTIES.          211 

France,  Spain,  Austria,  Portugal  and  Italy,  have  es- 
caped, J  acknowledge,  the  consequences  of  the  Refor- 
mation only  to  fall  into  the  generative  error  of  the  Re- 
naissance, Csesarism,  or  its  more  modern  form,  Lib^r- 
alism.  Their  misfortune  has  been  less  great  than  that 
of  Protestant  nations,  but  they  have  suffered  and  are 
still  suffering  none  the  less  from  this  great  fault.  To 
become  free  once  more  Catholics  require  only  "  the 
liberty  of  the  children  of  God,"  that  which  grants  them 
the  free  profession  of  their  religion  and  which  gives  to 
tLeir  Church  the  civil  liberty  of  practising  its  worship 
and  its  teachings.  Protestant  nations,  themselves,  are 
becoming  free  only  by  ceasing  to  be  Protestant,  or  at 
least  only  at  the  price  of  the  visible  decay  of  their  wor- 
ship. This  double  phenomenon,  which  is  foretold  in 
the  Scriptures  and  in  our  catechisms,  may  be  observed 
in  our  epoch  with  a  piecisioii  which  leaves  no  room  for 
doubt. 

Ubi  Petrus  ibl  Ecclesia.  In  the  political  language 
of  our  time  this  phrase  of  St.  Ambrose  may  be  thus  trans- 
lated :  Where  the  Pope  is  there  is  liberty. 

Outside  Christianity  there  is  no  civil  liberty.  An- 
cient liberty  was  based  on  slavery,  which  Aristotle,  the 
prince  of  pre-Christian  philosophy,  justified  "ra- 
tionally." The  integral  Christian  truth  is  found  only 
in  the  Universal  Church,  which  is  that  of  the  Pope  ; 
and  without  truth  there  is  no  liberty.  Cognosces 
veritatem  et  veritas  liberabit  vos. 

Let  us  raise  our  intelligences  above  our  miserable 
differences  on  questions  of  persons  or  on  distinctions 
of  words,  and  let  us  consider  in  its  entirety  the  history 


212      THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

of  the  Universal  Church  from  the  martyrdom  of  St. 
Peter  to  the  injuries  with  which  the  Sovereign  Pontiff, 
Pius  IX.,  is  overwhelmed,  whom  may  God  preserve 
and  make  to  live  to  the  age  of  John.  During  these 
eighteen  centuries  the  Catholic,  Apostolic  and  Roman 
Church  has  found  itself  in  open  hostility  with  all  the 
errors  of  which  the  spirit  of  evil  is  capable,  but  it  has 
triumphed  over  all,  from  the  hatred  of  the  Jews,  who 
stoned  St.  Stephen,  to  the  brutality  of  the  savages  who 
shot  the  late  Archbishop  of  Paris.  Christians  have 
never  doubted  of  it,  since  it  is  written  that  the  gates  of 
hell  shall  never  prevail  against  the  Church  of  Peter. 
But  it  is  not  useless  to  prove  to  unbelievers,  by  ex- 
perience, that  what  was  written  has  been  realized.  The 
distinction  of  the  two  powers,  as  one  would  say  in  school, 
thut  is  to  say,  the  source  of  civil  liberty,  has  been  re- 
vealed to  humanity  by  the  Gospel ;  it  was  unknown  to 
paganism.  Christians,  the  best  instructed,  as  well  as 
the  least  intelligent,  know  by  faifch  that  this  distinction 
of  the  two  powers  is  henceforward  the  condition  of 
social  life,  and  they  do  not  doubt  that  it  will  remain 
intact  until  the  consummation  of  the  world,  until  the 
day  when  all  the  distinctions  of  this  world  will  disap- 
pear to  make  way  for  the  truth  which  is  eternally  one. 
But,  as  doubts  may  arise  somewhere,  I  am  going  to 
show,  by  the  exterior  history  of  the  Church  of  Home, 
that  it  alone  in  the  world  has  known  how  to  maintain, 
alongside  the  purity  of  the  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  civil  liberties. 

When  the  fisherman  of  Galilee,  called  St.  Peter, 
arrived  at  Rome,  which  he  surnamed  "Babylon"  (I. 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTIES.          213 

Peter,  v.  13),  to  establish  his  see  there,  the  empire,  in 
the  apogee  of  its  greatness,  presented  the  spectacle  of 
a  grand  corruption  and  an  unparalleled  despotism 
which  the  literary  world  knows  from  Tacitus  and 
Juvenal,of  which  the  Christians  have  been  the  witnesses, 
and  whose  living  history  we  possess  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Martyrs.  From  the  crucifixion  of  the  first  Pope  on  the 
hill  of  the  Vatican  to  the  universal  edict  of  toleration 
published  in  313  by  Constantine,  during  three  cen- 
turies, the  blood  of  the  Catholics  washed  away  the  in- 
famies of  the  old  world.  It  is  from  the  depths  of  the 
catacombs  that  civil  liberty  has  sprung,  and  it  was  with 
just  reason  that  Julian  the  Apostate  exclaimed  when 
dying  :  "Galilean,  thou  hast  conquered  I"  How  many 
apostates  of  our  time  have  made  the  same  avowal ! 

Then  come  the  barbarians.  Who  will  stay  their  pro- 
gress? The  Eoman  Empire  or  the  Church,  the  sons  of 
Theodosius  or  Pope  St.  Leo  the  Great  ?  When  the 
Eoman  Empire  of  the  West  became  extinct  in  476,  in 
an  infant's  cradle,  that  of  Eomulus  Augustulus,  the 
Eoman  Church  had  induced  the  savages  of  the  North 
to  accept  the  torch  of  the  faith  which  was  the  only 
light  of  civil  society.  "It  is  not  by  constraint  and 
violence  that  Christians  ought  to  overturn  error,"  ex- 
claimed St.  John  Chrysostom ;  "it  is  by  persuasion, 
instruction  and  charity."  From  Pope  St.  Gregory  the 
Great  to  Pope  St.  Nicholas  the  Great,  this  work  of 
spiritual  sanctification  and  civil  culture  was  unin- 
terrupted. St.  Gregory  civilizes  England,  and  St. 
Nicholas  appoints  as  Archbishop  of  Bremen  and  Ham- 
burg St,  Ansgar,  the  Apostle  of  the  North  of  Europe. 


214       THE  FUTURE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

During  these  nine  first  centuries  what  became  of  the 
sects  of  the  Arians,  the  Manicheans,  the  Nestorians, 
etc.  ?  They  were  an  historical  cloud  of  dust,  which  dis- 
appeared before  Asiatic  despotism.  What  is  the  schism 
of  Photius,  the  Greek  Church,  going  to  become  when 
separated  from  the  Pope  ?  Byzantinism,  a  word  which 
designates  at  the  sarae  a  Church  without  expansion 
and  a  society  without  civil  liberty. 

Charlemagne,  founding  the  Holy  Eomnn  Empire  of 
the  Teutonic  nation,  is  crowned  by  the  Sovereign  Pon- 
tiff, and  accepts  the  charge  of  maintaining  civil  liberty 
in  the  West,  which  was  incessantly  menaced  by  the  in- 
vasion of  fresh  hordes  of  barbarians,  or  by  the  rudeness 
of  the  old  ones. 

In  a  short  time,  under  the  weak  successors  of  the 
great  Emperor,  civil  authority  is  threatened  with  fresh 
dangers :  the  abuses  of  the  feudal  system,  political 
anarchy,  serfage  under  all  i  s  forms,  the  right  of  force, 
etc.  Without  the  Catholic  Church  it  would  be  all  over 
with  civil  liberty. 

The  communal  era  begins.  Among  the  first  protect- 
ors of  communal  liberty,  I  perceive  in  Italy  a  Pope, 
Alexander  II.  Who  resists  the  Germanic  Caesars  when 
they  endeavor  to  transplant  the  laws  and  customs  of 
Byzantium  to  Europe  ?  The  Church  of  Eome.  Without 
the  perseverance  of  Catholic  peoples,  without  the  fidel- 
ity of  the  Catholic  hierarchy,  without  the  indom  4nble 
moral  erergy  of  myriads  of  Catholic  bishops  an 3 
monks,  without  the  supreme  resistance  of  the  succes- 
sor >  of  St.  Peter,  of  a  Gregory  VII.,  an  In-  ncert  III., 
a  Boniface  VIII.,  and  all  the  others,  the  coalition  01  in- 


THE    REFORMATION    AND    CIVIL   LIBERTIES.  215 

continent  priests  and  German  Cassarism  would  have 
triumphed  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  when 
the  attempt  at  a  universal  Germanic  neo-Csesarism  had 
failed,  the  jurists  and  liberals  took  up  the  important 
work  in  a  subordinate  manner.  To  comprehend  the 
great  danger  of  this  action  to  the  liberty  of  Europe, 
it  suffices  to  read  the  consultations  of  the  doctors 
of  Bologna.brought  by  Frederick  Barbarossa  to  the  Diet 
of  Roncaglia,  and  the  civil  code  written  by  Pierre 
Desvignes  for  Frederic  II.  at  Naples,  Frederick  II.  who 
was  freely  enjoying  himself  going  about  through  Sicily 
with  a  Mussulman  body-guard,  and  living  like  an  Ori- 
ental pasha,minus  the  piety.  The  maternal  solicitude 
of  the  Roman  Church  delivered  Christendom  from 
these  new  perils. 

When  the  partial  success  of  Protestantism  had  broken 
the  moral  unity  of  the  Christian  republic,  the  principle 
admitted  in  the  empire  of  the  distinction  of  the  two  pow- 
ers had  henceforward  for  rampart  nothing  more  than  the 
strength,  so  to  say  personal  or  hereditary,  of  the  House 
of  Hapsburg.  The  Church  did  not  the  less  persist  in 
its  immutability,  and  it  is  to  its  protection  that  we  owe 
our  preservation  from  the  decadence  with  which  we 
were  menaced  at  the  same  time  by  the  pagan  material- 
ism of  the  Renaissance,  the  absolutism  of  the  Protes- 
tant princes,  the  rigorism  of  the  Jansenists,  and  the 
invasions  of  the  Turks.  If  Europe  did  not  entirely  es- 
cape the  heavy  blows  of  the  revolutions  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  if  it  had  to  witness  the  corruption  of  so  many 
salutary  civil  institutions  which  the  Middle  Ages  had 


216  THE  FUTUEE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

made  to  flourish,  if  we  have  seen  a  revival  of  all  the 
theories  and  practices  of  the  imperial  Boman  law,  our 
Catholic  ancestors  at  least  found,  thaaks  to  the  unsha- 
ken attitude  of  the  Church  of  Borne,  a  modus  vivendi 
which  will  prevent  Europe  from  descending  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  moral  scale,  where  we  have  known  Sweden, 
Denmark,  Russia,  and  even  England,  to  be. 

The  Turks  no  longer  appear  to  us  to  be  an  object  of 
dread,  because  we  are  generally  ignorant  of  their  for- 
mer power  at  a  time  when  our  ancestors  added  to  their 
litanies  :  From  the  fury  of  the  Turks,  O  Lord,  deliver 
ns.  But  we  can  at  least  judge  in  Africa,  Asia  and  the 
Peninsula  of  the  Balkans  of  the  fatal  consequences 
which  the  political  greatness  of  the  Osmanlis  has  had 
for  the  civil  liberty  of  the  peoples  whom  they  have 
conquered.  Who  has  saved  Europe  from  this  corrod- 
ing influence  ?  The  Church  of  Borne.  In  732  a  Catho- 
lio  army,  under  the  command  of  a  Franc  chief, 
Charles  Martel,  stopped  the  progress  of  the  Mussul- 
mans at  Poitiers.  For  seven  centuries  the  Catholic 
Spaniards  continued  to  render  their  name  illustrious 
for  the  defence  of  civil  liberties  in  combating  the  Mo- 
hammedans who  established  themselves  in  their  count- 
ry. It  is  to  Pope  St.  Pius  V.  that  we  owe  the  victory 
of  Lepanto.  It  was  the  Catholic  peoples  of  the  Austri- 
an Empire,  the  Catholic  Hapsburgs,  John  Sobieski  and 
his  Poles  who  stopped  the  course  of  the  Turks  on  the 
Danube  and  prevented  modern  Europe  from  resem- 
bling the  Herzegovina  and  Bosnia  of  our  own  days. 

I  have  just  pronounced  the  name   of  Polanl  which 
Montalembert  on  one  occasion  called    "  the  Niobe  of 


THE   REFORMATION  AND   CIVIL  LIBERTIES.          217 

nations, "  Its  civil  liberty,  its  secular  institutions,  its 
independence,  its  religion,  and  even  its  name,  have 
been  ravished,  in  the  midst  of  peace,  from  this  heroic 
people,  by  a  coalition  of  Lutherans,  schismatics  and 
Febronians.  The  English  Minister,  Mr.  Harris,  after- 
wards first  Earl  of  Malmesbury,  who  assisted  at  this 
international  crime,  having  rendered  an  account  of  the 
facts  to  his  government,  the  Earl  of  Suffolk,  Secretary 
of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  tranquilly  replied  :  "  It 
is  a  curious  transaction. "  One  man  alone  protested  in 
Europe  :  the  Pope,  Ubi  Petrus  ibi  Libertas.  Where 
the  Pope  is  there  is  liberty. 

I  have  sketched  the  picture  of  the  ruins  caused  by 
Protestantism  in  civil  society.  I  might  add  to  it  that 
of  the  noble  resistance  of  the  Church  of  Home  to  the 
excesses  of  modern  Caesarism,  Gallicanisin,  Joseph- 
ism,  "  Sans-culottism,"  andBonapartism,  The  great- 
est despot  of  modern  times  met  with  invincible  resist- 
ence  only  twice  ;  from  the  Catholic  Spaniards  and 
from  Pius  VII.  Contemporary  Liberalism,  the  Ari- 
anism  of  the  nineteenth  century,  perceives  before  it 
only  one  insurmountable  obstacle,  that  is,  the  immov- 
able rock  of  the  Catholic,  Apostolic  and  Eoman 
Church,  which  will  triumph  over  this  error  as  it 
has  triumphed  over  the  others.  I  will  not  enter  at  this 
point  into  the  development  of  this  subject  which 
would  bring  me  outside  the  bounds  of  this  work.  I  reply, 
moreover,  only  to  assertions.  After  having  accumulat- 
ed the  proofs  and  facts,  I  ought  to  be  allowed  in  my 
turn  to  terminate  this  part  of  the  discussion  by  an  af- 
firmation which  is  at  this  moment  demonstrated  by  the 


218  THE  EUTUBE   OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES, 

facts  in  Germany,  Switzerland  and  elsewhere  :  anti- 
Catholic  Liberalism  is  for  the  civil  liberty  of  modern 
Europe  an  immense  danger  against  which  there  is  no 
other  remedy  than  the  practice  of  the  Catholic  religion. 
A  man  of  science,  a  Christian  like  M.  de  Laveleye  (I 
ought  to  consider  him  as  such  since  he  asserts  it), 
should  leave  to  others  the  charge  of  managing  the 
trowel  with  the  aid  of  which  certain  pourfendeura  de 
clerical  scrape  the  walls  of  the  impregnable  fortress 
of  the  Church.  If  he  reads  the  encyclicals  <;  Mirari 
vos'Tand  "Quanta  cur  a,"  with  calm  and  reflection,  he 
will  find  in  them  no  principle  which  could  be  rejected 
by  any  sincere  mind.  The  whole  Christian  edifice  is 
an  enormous  fraud  or  else  these  encylicals  are  the  ex- 
pression of  the  supreme  truth.  Free  them  from  the  secu- 
lar style  of  the  Pontifical  chancellorship,  as  you  know 
how  to  do  with  a  sentence  of  the  old  courts  of  Eng- 
and  or  even  with  our  court  of  cassation  ;  place  your- 
self on  the  footing  of  absolute  right,  the  only  one  to 
which  the  sovereign  Pontiff  pays  any  regard  ;  call  to 
mind  that  the  Pope,  when  he  treats  of  such  subjects, 
speaks  for  all  ages  ;  consider  the  present  errors  which 
have  provoked  these  doctrinal  decisions  ;  read  over 
again  the  minutes  of  those  great  trials;  reflect  serious- 
ly, humbly,  as  an  attentive,  instructed  and  learned 
person  ought  to  do  in  all  the  great  circumstances  of 
life  ;  and  with  your  hand  on  your  conscience  come  to 
a  conclusion.  I  have  said  and  written  it,  and  I  re- 
peat that  the  Popes  of  our  generation,  in  pronouncing 
these  doctrinal  sentences  which  ignorance  or  hatred 
disfigures,  in  defining  with  the  authority  which  be* 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTIES.  219 

longs  to  the  "  science "  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  eighteen  centuries'  standing,  the  absolute 
conditions  of  the  Christian  truth  in  its  relations  with 
the  political  or  civil  law,  the  Popes  of  our  generation 
have  rendered  to  our  age  a  service  which  will  earn  for 
them  the  blessing**  of  poster *ty, 

I  know  the  part  which  certain  foolish  individuals 
pretend  to  take  from  these  judgments  of  admirable 
wisdom  and  penetrating  foresight  :  I  know  that  under 
certain  religious  waggeries  are  sometimes  concealed 
the  narrow  spirit  of  coteries  and  the  pride  of  some  men 
who  forget  that  "  the  faith  is  a  gift  from  God  ; "  I 
hear  the  imprecations  which  are  launched  against  all 
the  truly  good  things  of  our  time  by  "malcontents" 
who  would  have  used  the  same  language  in  the  time  of 
St.  Francis  of  Assisi  and  St.  Dominick  ;  but  what  I 
know,  see  or  hear,  around  or  within  the  environs  of 
the  Church  cannot  prevent  me  from  admiring  the  bril- 
liant light  which  it  makes  to  shine  in  all  directions. 
Blind,  indeed,  are  they  who  do  not  see  it. 

Ubi  Petrus  ibv  Libertas.  Where  the  Pope  is  there 
is  liberty. 

M.  deLaveleye  dares  to  write  that  Catholic  peoples 
are  fatally  condemned  to  despotism  and  anarchy,  that 
they  alternately  become  the  prey  of  absolutism  and  revo- 
lution. Political  absolutism  is  contrary  to  the  essence 
of  the  Church,  and  it  is  superabundantly  proved  by  the 
history  of  our  times  that  Catholics  are  being  subject- 
ed to  revolutions,  but  are  causing  none.  If,  then, 
there  is  a  despotism  or  a  revolution  anywhere,  be  sure 
thaf  the  friends  or  the  allies  of  M.  de  Laveleye  are  at 


220       THE  FUTURE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

least  reaping  the  benefits  of  it,  if  they  are  not  its 
authors. 

The  Catholics  are  factious.  Long  ago,  Nero,  a  very 
liberal  man  in  politics,  but  rather  rude  in  the  expres- 
sion of  his  opinions,  was  so  minded.  It  was  only  for 
this  motive  that  he  ordered  St.  Paul  to  be  beheaded 
and  St.  Peter  crucified,  both  of  whom  were  provoking 
civil  war  in  the  empire.  There  is  a  fable  of  Lafon- 
taine,  the  Wolf  and  the  Lamb,  in  which  the  same  stern 
logic  is  employed  by  Mr.  Wolf. 

We  are  also  told  that  the  Catholic  faith  engenders 
religious  indifference,  whust  the  Protestant  sects  are 
kindling  fires  of  fervor.  Yes,  I  am  personally  acquaint- 
ed with  very  fervent  Protestants,  pious  men,  of  whom 
I  deem  it  an  honor  to  be  the  friend,  but  the  profound 
respect  with  which  their  elevated  character  and  the 
purity  of  their  lives  inspires  me  should  not  prevent  me 
from  replying  to  M.  de  Laveleye  that  he  assumes  his 
desires  or  opinions  to  be  realities.  I  will  not  waste 
my  ink  in  showing  that  the  Catholic  Church  is  not  in 
a  state  of  decadence.  If  you  really  believe  that  the 
Boman  Church  is  menaced  with  ruin,  let  it  fall,  and 
take  no  more  concern  about  it  than  about  the  religion 
of  India  or  that  of  the  Celestial  Empire. 

Let  us  mention  in  passing  that  scientific  unbelief 
and  that  of  the  higher  or  "  enlightened  "  classes  began 
in  England,  whence  it  passed  into  France.  A  French 
gentleman,  after  a  certain  manner,  passed  some  time 
in  England.  When  he  returned  to  the  court  of  Louis 
XIV.  the  latter  asked  him  :  "What  have  you  gone  to 
England  to  learn?"  "To  think,  Sire."  "  On* the 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  CIVIL  LIBERTIES.  221 

horses  ?"  replied  the  king.  As  to  Biblical  and  philo- 
sophical rationalism  it  originated  in  Germany.  M.  E. 
Benan  is  a  pupil,  if  not  a  plagiarist,  of  Herr  Strauss  : 
this  moral  filiation  in  error  does  not  date  Irom  our  times. 
After  having  drawn  a  picture  of  th  j  organism  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  which  deiiotes  a  profound  ignorance 
of  the  Catechism  (let  M.  de  Laveleye  allow  me  to  tell 
him  gruffly),  he  affirms  that  civil  society  necessarily 
tends  to  shape  itself  after  the  religious  form  which 
dominates  in  it.  Save  one  reserve  which  I  will 
make  further  on, there  is  some  truth  in  this  last  observa- 
tion. I  take  hold  of  it  to  assert  that  a  perfect  civil 
society  would  be  that  in  which  the  Catholic  religion 
would  be  sincerely  practised  by  every  citizen.  The 
argument  might  also  be  retorted  against  its  author.  In 
effect,  in  making  the  defence  of  Protestantism  of  what 
sect  does  he  mean  to  speak  ?  He  does  not  tell  us,  be- 
cause, in  his  error,  he  only  adheres  to  the  Protestant 
principle ,  that  is  to  say,  to  religious  individualism,  to 
subjectivism.  Substantially,  he  reasons  like  the  phi- 
losophers of  the  tune  of  St.  Ambrose  (there  is  nothing 
new  in  these  matters  since  the  fourth  century).  Pro- 
clus  said  :  "  The  philosopher  does  not  confine  him- 
self to  such  or  such  a  national  form  of  worship  ;  he  is 
not  a  stranger  to  any  form  of  religion,  for  he  is  the 
high  priest  of  the  universe."  The  prefect  Symmachus 
(governor  or  burgomaster,  as  we  would  now  say)  ex- 
claimed, I  think,  at  a  public  banquet :  "What  matter  by 
which  way  we  arrive  at  the  truth  ?  It  is  so  mysterious 
that  there  must  be  many  ways  leading  to  it."  But  if  it 
is  on  subjectivism  that  civil  society  should  be  mod- 


222  THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

eled,  this  latter  will  tend  in  politics  to  the  anarchy  of 
M.  Proudhon. 

The  same  remark  may  be  applied  to  the  inci  edible 
little  dissertation  of  the  author  on  the  infallibility  of 
the  magistracy  of  the  Holy  Apostolic  See.  The  infall- 
ibility is  not  absolute.  If  M.  de  Laveleye  does  not 
know  it,  let  him  learn  it  from  one  of  the  children  who 
attend  the  catechism  in  the  nearest  church.  The  civil 
society  which  will  take  the  Catholic  form  as  a  model 
will  not,  then,  submit  to  an  absolute  human  authority. 
In  this  Church  the  pontifical  authority  is  no  more  ter- 
rible than  the  paternal  authority  in  the  family.  Of 
the  two  authorities,  of  which  one  is  natural  and  the 
other  spiritual,  the  first  is  tempered  by  love  and  by 
the  civil  law,  and  the  second  by  the  grace  of  God  and 
the  very  constitution  of  the  Church.  I  ask  every  un- 
prejudiced man,  what  is  there  terrible  in  the  authority 
of  our  Holy  Father,  Pope  Pius  IX  ? 

When  I  said  a  little  while  ago  that  there  was  some 
truth  in  M.  de  Laveleye's  observation  touching  the  in- 
fluence that  the  dominant  form  of  worship  of  a  people 
has  over  the  form  of  civil  society,  I  should,  however, 
have  made  one  reserve,  which  will  prove  the  religious 
care  with  which  a  Catholic  ought  to  maintain  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  necessary  distinction  of  the  two  powers  : 
the  analogy  between  the  form  of  religious  society  and 
the  form  of  civil  society  is  not  necessary,  for  the 
source  of  the  two  societies  is  different,  and  this  differ- 
ence is  the  religious  guarantee  of  civil  liberty.  The 
form  of  religious  society  is  divine  and  determined  by 
the  will  of  its  Founder,  the  form  of  human  society  (ar- 


THE  KEFOBMATION  AND  CIVIL  fclBEKTIES.          223 

istocraey,  democracy,  monarchy,  &c.)  is  of  human  or- 
igin. St.  Thomas,  an  "  Ultramontane,"  as  M.  de 
Laveleye  would  say,  regards  monarchy  tempered  by 
aristocracy  and  democracy,  as  the  best  form  of  govern- 
ment, whilst  Bossuet,  the  chief  of  Gallicanism,  is  an 
absolutist  in  politics.  This  comparison  deranges  M. 
de  Laveleye's  reasoning  somewhat. 

Since  the  conversion  of  Constantine,  and,  more  re- 
cently, since  the  coronation  of  Charlemagne  as  tempo- 
ral head  of  the  Christian  Eepublic,  civil  society  had, 
under  the  maternal  segis  of  the  Church,  followed  a  de- 
velopment which  the  false  ideas  of  the  Benaissance 
came  to  embarrass  and  whose  unity  was  broken  by  the 
Protestant  revolution.  Since  the  sixteenth  century 
European  society  is  morally  dismembered,  and  the 
secular  institutions  which  the  people  had  gained  with 
difficulty  and  successively  to  defend  the  dignity  of 
political  life  and  civil  liberties,  have  not  been  any 
more  developed ;  they  have  been  corrupted,  have 
fallen  into  desuetude,  or  have  been  violently  torn 
from  the  popular  entrails.  All  these  ruins  have  been 
the  handiwork  of  the  Benaissance  and  of  Protestant- 
ism. The  French  Bevolution,  in  substituting  pure 
rationalism  for  the  subjective  Christianity  of  the  Prot- 
estants, has  not  been  guilty  of  an  innovation ;  it  has 
given  to  its  predecessor,  the  revolution  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  only  a  new  application,  much  more  dangerous 
to  Protestantism  than  to  the  Universal  Church.  In 
effect,  the  Protestant  governments  suppressed  the  civil 
liberty  of  Catholics ;  the  French  Bevolution  had  at 
<east  the  pretence  of  giving  liberty  to  all  forms  of  wor- 


224  THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOUO  PEOPLES. 

ship.  The  positive  consequences  of  this  innovation 
have  been  a  new  efflorescence  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  a  weakening  of  the  official  Protestant  sects,  the 
Anglican  Church,  the  Church  of  Knox,  the  Church  of 
Calvin,  the  Church  of  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  the 
Church  of  the  Catechism  of  Heidelberg,  the  Church  of 
the  Prussian  Union,  &c.  Without  the  secular  arm 
Protestantism,  based  on  the  subjectivism  of  individual 
liberty,  might  be  indefinitely  divided  into  small  bodies, 
whilst  the  Universal  Church  can  not  only  dispense 
with  the  secular  arm,  but  even  go  down  again  into  the 
Catacombs.  The  more  the  Catholic  Church  will  be 
persecuted,  the  stronger  will  it  become.  Sanguis 
martyrum  semen  Christianorum.  This  truth  has 
become  an  historical  truism. 

So,  we  have  almost  returned  to  a  religious  situation 
analagous  to  that  of  the  fourth  century. 

You  believed  in  your  prejudices,  in  your  ignorance 
or  in  your  hatred,  that  the  Catholic  Church,  admitting 
no  purely  individual  and  subjective  faith,  would 
crumble  like  a  human  institution  when  it  would  be  de- 
spoiled of  its  political  prerogatives  and  abandoned, 
without  any  temporal  defence,  to  the  attacks  of  unbe- 
lievers. Whilst  proclaiming,  along  with  the  Holy  See, 
the  inalienable,  imprescriptible,  absolute  rights  of  the 
Christian  Church,  which  is  the  Church  of  God,  we 
have  sincerely  accepted  this,  for  you,  new  situation, 
and  after  having  repaired  the  ruins  which  you  had 
provoked  in  your  temple,  we  began  to  make  shine 
around  you  the  glowing  power  of  the  truths  of  which 
we  have  the  deposit. 


THE  REFOBMATION  AND   CIVIL  LIBERTIES.          225 

You  were  beginning  to  acknowedge  that  you  have 
oeen  deceived.  In  England,  in  America,  in  Germany, 
Ju  Switzerland,  the  Catholic  Church  has  shone  with  a 
new  light.  You  yourselves  are  frightened  at  what  you 
have  done.  The  Belgian  Liberals  who  voted  the  Bel- 
gian Constitution  are  called  " dupes."  Prince  Bis- 
marck and  M.  Carteret  do  not  wish  to  be  dupes.  Even 
yesterday  (October  9th,  1875)  M.  de  Laveleye  sent  fco 
the  Independence  Beige  an  economical  homily  in 
which  I  read : 

"The  new  political  economy  does  not  admit  the 
theory  of  a  State  of  gendarmes ;  it  does  not  believe 
that  the  State  has  fulfilled  its  mission  when  it  makes 
order  reign.  It  revives  the  Greek  notion  which  con- 
siders the  State  as  the  emanation  of  whatever  wisdom, 
light  and  virtue  there  is  in  the  world,  and  which  con- 
sequently sees  in  it  a  civilizing  agent,  an  instrument 
of  progress.  It  is  this  theory  that  has  made  the  im- 
mortal greatness  of  Athens  and  the  so  extraordinary 
fortune  of  Prussia." 

The  "  new  political  economy  "  of  M.  de  Laveleye  is 
the  radical  refutation  of  his  old  religious  thesis.  In 
effect  the  individualistic  subjectivism  of  Protestantism 
does  not  conciliate  itself  with  this  doctrine.  This  con- 
tradiction is  a  new  proof  of  the  confusion  into  which 
anti-Catholic  prejudices  have  thrown  it. 

After  such  an  avowal,  let  M.  de  Laveleye  come  and 
tell  us  of  the  imaginary  contradictions  of  Catholics. 
I  will  show  him  his  own  in  action ;  And  I  will  add : 

When  you  look  for  a  contradiction  between  the 
teachijQgs  of  the  Church  and  the  fidelity  of  Catholics 


226  THE  FUTUEE  OP  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

to  the  Belgian  constitution,  your  heart  is  filled  with 
dread.  You  would  be  pleased  if  this  contradiction  had 
a  real  existence,  because  it  would  give  you  an  oppor- 
tunity of  reestablishing  the  Greek  notion,  or  it  would 
at  least  afford  you  a  pretext  to  turn  your  back  on  "  the 
immortal  principles  of  '89  "  and  expel  the  disciples  of 
St.  Dionysius  from  the  Areopagus.  This  satisfaction 
cannot  be  accorded  to  you.  We  have  not  made  the 
French  Eevolution  any  more  than  we  have  called  in  the 
Barbarians.  Now  that  the  revolution  has  been 
brought  about  in  spite  of  us,  and  that  we  are  eternal, 
we  try  to  imitate  the  conduct  of  St.  Kemigius  towards 
the  haughty  Sicambrians.  "  For  so,"  says  the  Apostle 
St.  Peter,  "is  the  will  of  God,  that  by  doing  well  you 
may  put  to  silence  the  ignorance  of  foolish  men,  as 
free  and  not  as  making  liberty  a  cloak  for  malice,  but 
as  the  servants  of  God.  Honor  all  men.  Love  the 
brotherhood.  Fear  God.  Honor  the  king." 

Historical  Protestantism,  the  only  one  with  which  we 
are  acquainted,  has  been  incapable  of  maintaining  civil 
liberty.  Without  the  secular  arm  it  cannot  suppoit 
itself  as  a  general  form  of  worship. 

Anti-Catholic,  or  if  you  prefer  it,  acatholic  civil  lib- 
erty, such  as  people  try  to  organize  it  in  the  present 
century,  is  powerless  to  arrest  the  fresh  impulse  of 
progress  in  the  Universal  Church. 

What  remains,  then,  of  your  accusations  ? 

What  remains  is  an  involuntary  defence  of  tho 
Church  and  the  disquieting  presentiment  of  its  future 
triumphs. 


CONCLUSION. 

The  Next  Great  Age  will  6e  a  Catholic  One. 

In  the  ancient  missals  of  Paris  we  find  at  the  Introit 
of  the  mass  for  the  vigil  of  Christmas  :  "  Yet  a  little 
while  and  I  will  shake  the  heavens,  and  the  earth  and 
the  sea  and  the  whole  universe  ;  and  I  will  make  all 
people  tremble  :  and  the  desired  of  all  nations  shall 
come.  Hear  this,  O  all  ye  peoples  I  Be  attentive,  $e 
inhabitants  of  the  earth  I" 

The  Jewish  doctors,  the  wise  and  the  learned  of  the 
time  of  Herod  knew  this  text ;  but  they  paid  no  atten- 
tion to  the  great  event  of  Bethlehem  of  Judea  of  which 
we  celebrate  the  august  anniversary  on  this  Christmas 
Eve.  The  powerful  of  the  empire  with  Caesar  at  their 
head,  had  been  warned  by  the  Sybil,  but  in  vain.  A 
few  herdsmen  of  Judea,  then  some  fishermen  of  Galilee 
were  more  clear  sighted.  It  was  in  presence  of  a 
few  shepherds,  attending  at  the  Incarnation  of  the  Light 
of  the  World,  the  greatest  event  in  the  history  of  hu-» 
inanity,  that  the  angels  chanted  this  canticle : 

"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest  and  on  earth  peace  to 
men  of  good  will." 

Let  us  repeat  it  and  recollect  ourselves.  Let  us  re- 
joice at  having  obtained  the  grace  of  perceiving  the 
Christian  light,  but  let  us  not  be  proud,  since  this 
light  does  not  come  from  us,  but  from  on  high. 
Montesquieu,  who,  in  his  youth,  did  not  perceive  it, 
made,  towards  the  end  of  his  career,  in  the  crowning 


228      THE  FUTURE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES, 

•work  of  his  science  matured  bj  time  and  condensed 
by  reflection,  this  eloquent  avowal :   "  It  is  a  thing  to 
be  wondered  at;  the  Christian  religion,  which  appears 
to  have  no  other  object  but  the  felicity  of  the  other 
life,  still  constitutes  our  happiness  in  this.     (Esprit 
des  Lois,  XXTV  ;  3),      These    words  are  rigorously 
true.      Lord  Macaulay  states  somewhere,  with  some- 
what of  rancor  that  the  Catholics  who  are  now  becom- 
ing Protestants  are  generally  bad  Protestants.     In  ef- 
fect, those  who  have  the  faith  remain  Catholics,  and 
when  they  have  lost  it  they  do  not  lose  time  in  becoming 
Protestants.       Catholic   nations    have    received   no 
promise  of  temporal  riches  or  constant  political  euc- 
cess  ;  but  they  have  no  reason  to  envy  in  this  respect 
the  other  peoples,  ancient  as  well  as  modern.    When 
they  have  sought  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  justice 
they  have  received  in  abundance,   conformably  with 
the  inspired  word,  all  that  can  be  desired  here  below, 
before  death,  by  prudent,   wise  and  reasonable  men. 
The  Catholic  Church  has  been  not  only  the  foster  mo- 
ther of  civilization  for  nearl*$$wo  thousand  years,  not 
only  is  she  the  sole  depositary  of  the  integral  Chris- 
tian truth,  she  is  also  the  pure    atmosphere  in  which 
human  reason  is  preserved  incorruptible.  The  sciences, 
letters  and  arts  have  been  cultivated  by  Catholics  at  an 
epoch  when  no  one  else  in  the  world  cared  about  them, 
when  these  divine  plants  were  even  ignored   by  the 
rest  of  humanity.     Even  in  a  human  point  of  view,  the 
Catholic  Church  is  the  greatest  and  noblest  institution 
which  has  made  its  appearance  in  the  history  of  terres- 
trial things,  and  even  to-day,  humanly  speaking,  there 


THE  NEXT  GBEAT  AGE  WILL  BE  CATHOLIC.    229 

5s  none  more  solid  than  it.  At  all  epochs  it  has  shone 
in  the  world  by  faith  and  works,  aud  its  faithful  have 
m  irched  to  the  first  ranks,  not  only  in  the  divine,  but 
even  in  the  human  sciences.  Catholic  nations  know  as 
well  as  you  the  importance  of  capital  and  the  value  of 
labor,  but  between  these  two  factors  of  riches  what  an 
admirable  intermediate  they  possess  in  the  inexhaust- 
ible treasure  of  their  Church  ;  and  if  the  economical 
development  of  modern  times  is  capable  of  being  re- 
tained within  the  bounds  of  justice, be  sure  that  salva- 
tion can  only  be  found  in  the  maternal  bosom  of  the 
Church. 

The  next  great  age  will  be  a  Catholic  one.  From 
St.  Paul  to  St.  Augustine, from  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen 
to  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  from  Dante  to  Petrarch,  from 
Boger  Bacon  and  Shakespeare  (who  died  a  Catholic) 
to  Corneille,  from  Descartes  to  Malebranche,from  Bos- 
suet  to  Chateaubriand,  from  Lamartine  to  the  ardent 
and  noble  youth  whom  I  see  swarming  in  our  schools, 
the  Catholic  nations,  invariable  in  the  unity  of  their 
faith,  have  marched  with  r,  firm  step  to  the  conquest 
of  the  secrets  of  nature  and  created  beauty.  Rival 
them  if  you  can.  Ascend  with  them  up  the  ladder  of 
human  knowledge.  Multiply  the  applications  of  steam 
and  electricity,  analyze  heat,  explain  the  laws  of  light, 
wrest  from  the  sun  the  mystery  of  its  composition 
Continue  to  ascend.  Contemplate  the  unfathomable 
depths  of  created  space,  watch  the  apparition  in  the 
celestial  sphere  of  bodies  whose  light  has  travelled 
towards  us  with  a  prodigious  rapidity  since  the  days  of 
Abel's  murder.  And  still  higher.  Resist,  if  you  have 


230  THE  FUTUBE  OF  CATHOLIC  PEOPLES. 

strength  to  do  so,  the  formidable  alliance  which  peo- 
ple call  the  harmony  of  the  celestial  bodies  and  which 
confounds  the  imagination.  Make  another  effort. 
Mount  to  those  indefinite,  bnt  created,  heights  which 
are  called  the  region  of  the  fixed  stars,  and  which  ap- 
proach the  infinite.  And  when  you  are  fatigued  by 
the  study  and  enervated  by  the  contemplation  of  these 
giddy  heights,  the  Catholic  will  even  then  exclaim  : 
My  friend,  higher  yet,  and  still  higher.  JExcelsior. 


APPENDIX. 

NOTES  PKOM  "THE  DUBLIN   KEVTEW." 


[The  publishers  believe  that  readers  of  this  translation  of 
Baron  de  Haulleville's  work  will  find  it  an  advantage  to  have 
bound  up  with  it  the  following  contribution  to  the  discussion 
from  The  Dublin  JKeview.} 

When  Macaulay  in  his  famous  essay  on  the  Popes 
confessed  that  Protestantism  had  not  given  "any  proofs 
of  that  expansive  power  which  had  been  attributed  to 
it,"  that  it  had  actually  lost  many  of  its  first  conquests 
in  Europe,  that  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  "as 
far  as  there  had  been  a  change,  that  change  had  upon 
the  whole  been  in  favor  of  the  Church  of  Borne,"  he 
endeavored  to  offer  some  consolation  to  his  Protestant 
readers  by  asserting  that  Protestantism  had  been  prac- 
tically proved  to  be  more  conducive  to  a  nation's  pros- 
perity than  Catholicism.  "It  cannot  be  doubted,"  he 
said,  "that  since  the  sixteenth  century  the  Protestant 
nations  have  made  decidedly  greater  progress  than 
their  neighbors.  The  progress  made  by  those  nations 
in  which  Protestantism,  though  not  finally  successful, 
yet  maintained  a  long  struggle,  and  left  permanent 
traces,  has  generally  been  considerable.  But,  when  we 
come  to  the  Catholic  Land,  to  the  part  of  Europe  in 
•which  the  first  spark  of  [Reformation  was  trodden  out 
as  soon  as  it  appeared,  and  from  which  proceeded  the 
impulse  that  drove  Protestantism  back,  we  find  at  best 
a  very  slow  progress,  and  on  the  whole  a  retrogres- 
sion." And  he  added  :  "Our  firm  belief  ia  that  the 


232  NOTES  FBOH   "  THE  DUBLIN  BEVIEW," 

North  owes  its  great  civilization  and  prosperity  chiefly 
to  the  moral  effect  of  the  Protestant  Reformation,  and 
that  the  decay  of  the  Southern  countries  of  Europe  is 
to  be  mainly  ascribed  to  the  great  Catholic  revi- 
val." 

Such  as  it  is,  this  consolation  is  but  a  poor  one.  Want 
of  expansive  power  and  inability  to  make  new  con- 
quests are  not  the  marks  of  the  true  Church.  Veritas 
prcevalebi  is  an  adage  which  has  been  thoroughly  fal- 
sified by  facts,  if  Protestantism  has  truth  upon  ita 
side.  But,  says  Lord  Macaulay,  the  truth  is  prevail- 
ing in  another  fashion.  The  people  of  Protestant 
countries  are  rich,  progressive,  intelligent,  and  this 
mainly  on  account  of  the  Reformation,  while  Catho- 
licity has  a  contrary  tendency,  and  leads  to  "  at  best 
very  slow  progress,  and  on  the  whole  a  retrogression." 
This  idea  has  always  been  a  favorite  one  with  Protes- 
tant writers,  and  of  late  years  it  has  been  adopted  by 
the  Liberals  and  freethinkers  of  the  continent  as  a 
thesis  which  they  suppose  they  can  maintain  with 
good  results  to  their  cause,  Here  they  say  we  have 
proof  that  Catholic  nations  can  only  be  prosperous  in 
spite  of  Catholicity,  and  if  you  are  a  good  Catholic  you 
are  at  the  same  time  a  bad  patriot.  In  support  of  this 
thesis  they  compare  Protestant  and  Catholic  nations 
always  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  latter  ;  not  that  they 
have  any  particular  affection  for  Protestantism,  but 
they  remember  Edgar  Quinet's  advice,  that  in  the  war 
with  Catholicity  they  should  ally  themselves  with  all 
that  is  not  Catholic. 

M.  DE  LAVELEYE'S  POSITION. 

M.  Etnile  de  Laveleye,  professor  of  political  economy 
in  the  Liberal  University  of  Lie'ge,  and  known  to  Eng- 
lish readers  by  an  occasional  contribution  to  the 
Fortnightly ,  edits  an  ultra-Liberal  periodical,  the 


APPENDIX.  233 

Revue  de  Belgique.  This  review  has  made  itself  a 
power  among  the  gueux,  the  "  anti-Clerical  "  party  in 
Belgium,  by  its  persistent  attacks  upon  the  Catholic 
Church.  Not  long  ago  one  of  the  youngest  of  its  con- 
tributors, M.  Perganani,  ventured  to  assert  that  force 
was  the  source  of  right,  and  that  as  argument  pro- 
duced no  effect  upon  the  Catholics,  and  it  was  impos- 
sible to  contend  with  them  on  equal  terms,  tbe  Liber- 
als of  Belgium  ought  to  make  up  their  minds  to  begin 
a  policy  of  repression  and  persecution.  The  teaching 
of  the  article  was  disavowed  by  the  moderate  Liberal 
press,  and  M.  de  Laveleye  wrote  to  the  Journal  de 
Gand  declaring  tLat  he  did  not  share  the  views  of  his 
collaborateur,  but  that  he  had  published  the  article, 
because  it  represented  an  important  phase  of  the  anti- 
clerical movement,  a  policy  which  had  many  support- 
ers throughout  Europe,  and  to  which  still  more  would 
rally,  "  according  as  the  extravagant  pretensions  of 
the  clergy  called  forth  a  more  ardent  opposition." 
This  is  enough  to  show  the  spirit  of  the  man.  He 
thoroughly  hates  the  Catholic  Church,  and  in  one 
form  or  another  his  hatred  for  it  finds  frequent  ex- 
pression. Withal  he  affects  to  speak  with  scientific 
and  judicial  impartiality,  and  it  was  thus  he  assumed 
to  treat  his  subject,  when  he  wrote  and  published  in 
his  review  an  extremely  prejudiced  and  one-sided 
article  on  Protestantism  and  Catholicism  in  their  re- 
lation to  popular  liberty  and  national  prosperity.  It 
was  immediately  republished  as  a  pamphlet  at  Paris, 
and  translated  into-Dutch,  German,  and  English  by  M. 
de  Laveleye's  admirers  in  Amsterdam,  Berlin,  and 
London,  the  English  edition  having  for  a  preface  a  let- 
ter to  the  author  written  by  Mr.  Gladstone,  from 
which  it  appears  that  the  pamphlet  had  been  trans- 
lated into  English  at  the  special  desire  of  the  member 
for  Greenwich,  although  he  does  not  in  all  points  con- 


234  NOTES  FROM   "THE  DUBLIN  REVIEW." 

cur  with  the  views  expressed  in  it.  The  original  arti- 
cle called  forth  an  able  reply  from  a  Belgian  Catholic 
journalist,  the  Baron  de  Haulleville,  a  reply  the  best 
eulogy  of  which  is  expressed  in  the  opinion  of  Cardinal 
Deschamps,  that  "  it  deserves  to  be  read  even  after 
the  great  works  of  Balmez  "  on  the  same  subject.  M. 
de  Lavel eye's  theory  has  its  supporters  in  England, 
and  is  to  be  met  with  from  time  to  time  in  the  press, 
on  the  platform,  and  even  in  conversation.  We  may 
therefore  profitably  consider  what  answer  can  be  made 
to  it  from  the  Catholic  point  of  view.  In  framing  this 
reply,  we  shall  develop  in  its  main  outlines  M.  de 
Haullevilie's  argument,  adding,  however,  a  few  facts 
and  considerations  from  other  sources,  and  occasionally 
avail  ng  ourselves  of  more  recent  statistics  than  those 
which  appear  in  his  pamphlet. 

HIS  SEVEN  PBOPOSITIONS. 

M.  de  Laveleye's  theory  is  briefly  that  which  was 
lately  set  forth  by  an  Italian  journalist  in  the  laconic 
phrase,  "  The  peoples  of  the  Papal  religion  are  either 
dead  or  dying."*  This  Belgian  Liberal  holds  that  the 
future  of  Europe  will  be  in  the  hands  of  Protestant 
Germans  and  schismatic  Slavs.  The  Latin  race  is 
doomed,  and  this  because  it  is  Catholic.  This  is  the 
summary  of  his  teaching  ;  let  us  endeavor  to  find  out 
upon  what  grounds  he  would  have  us  accept  it. 

First,  he  tells  us  that  "  when  in  one  and  the  same 
country  and  one  and  the  same  group,  identical  in  lan- 
guage, and  identical  in  origin,  it  can  be  affirmed  that 
Protestants  advance  more  rapidly  and  steadily  than 
Catholics,  it  is  difficult  not  to  attribute  the  superiority 
of  the  one  over  the  other  to  the  religions  they  profess" 

*  "  I  popili  di  religione  papale  o  BODO  gia  morti  o  vanno 
morire."— II  Diritto,  the  organ  of  the  Depretis  Melegari  cabi- 
net 


APPENDIX.  235 

(p.  11).  He  cites  Ireland  and  Scotland  as  cases  in 
point.  We  shall  examine  the  truth  of  his  conclusions 
presently.  Meanwhile  we  proceed  to  select  further 
propositions  from  his  pamphlet. 

Secondly,  he  tells  us  that  "  wherbver  the  two  re- 
ligions exist  together  in  the  same  country,  the  Pro- 
testants are  more  active,  more  industrious,  more 
economical,  and  consequently  richer  than  the  Catho- 
lics "  (p.  14.) 

Thirdly,  that  "throughout  Germany  at  the  present 
day  the  trade  in  intellectual  works — such  as  books, 
reviews,  maps,  newspapers — is  almost  entirely  in  the 
hands  of  Jews  and  Protestants,  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
Catholics  "(p.  16). 

Fourthly,  that  "the  nations  subject  to  Home  seem 
stricken  with  barrenness;  they  no  longer  colonize, 

they  have  no  power  of  expansion Their  past 

is  brilliant,  but  their  present  is  gloomy,  and  their  fu- 
ture disquietiog  "  (p.  18). 

Fifthly,  that  "  the  Catholic  countries  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic  are  a  prey  to  internal  struggles  which 
consume  their  strength,  or  at  least  prevent  them  from, 
advancing  as  steadily  and  rapidly  as  Protestant  na- 
tions "  (p,  21). 

Sixthly,  he  attributes  to  defective  popular  education 
a  portion  of  this  inferiority. 

Lastly,  he  makes  a  statement  the  boldness  of  which, 
we  venture  to  say,  exceeds  that  of  anything  else  in  his 
pamphlet,  a  work  which  certainly  does  not  err  in  the 
matter  of  over-caution.  "It  is  agreed  on  all  sides," 
he  says,  "  that  the  power  of  nations  depends  on  their 

morality !Now,  it  appears  to  be  an  established 

fact  that  the  moral  level  is  higher  among  the  Protes- 
tants than  among  Catholic  populations  "  (p.  25). 

These  seven  propositions,  we  believe,  fairly  repre- 
sent M.  de  Laveleye's  position  on  the  question.  We 


236     NOTES  FBOM  "  THE  DUBLIN  REVIEW." 

shall  now  proceed  to  examine  them  by  the  light  of 
facts  and  figures.  But  before  doing  so  we  must  make 
a  few  observations  on  the  subject  as  a  whole.  In  the 
first  place,  then,  we  might  refuse  at  the  outset  to 
accept  the  issue  which  M.  de  Lave  ley  e  has  raised,  for 
it  is  in  the  main  a  radically  false  one.  He  deals,  for 
the  most  part,  with  the  comparative  prosperity  of 
Catholics  and  Protestants  in  mere  material  things,  in 
wealth,  comfort,  "progress."  He  gives  his  verdict 
against  Catholicity  on  all  these  points,  and  expresses 
a  regret  that  his  own  country,  and  all  the  other  Latin 
people,  did  not  become  Protestants  long  ago,  when  the 
chance  was  offered  them,  and  so  take  their  due  share 
in  the  good  things  of  this  world.  Now,  Catholicity 
never  yet  claimed  to  be  a  wealth-producing  agency;  it 
is  a  religion  which  counts  voluntary  poverty  among  its 
counsels,  doubtless,  a  very  absurd  and  mischievous 
proceeding  in  the  eyes  of  our  Belgian  professor  of  po- 
litical economy.  But  there  stands  the  fact ;  the  Church 
does  not  profess  to  make  of  Catholic  nations  conquer  - 
ing  peoples,  wealthy  peoples,  colonizing  peoples,  or 
even  educated  peoples  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the 
word.  She  does,  indeed,  tell  them  to  be  conquerors, 
but  they  are  to  conquer  themselves  under  her  guid- 
ance ;  they  are  to  be  rich,  but  their  commerce  is  to  be 
of  that  kind  which  lays  up  treasures  not  on  earth,  but 
in  Heaven  ;  the  only  enterprises  of  colonization  which 
the  Church  demands  from  them  will  be  the  sending 
forth  of  missionaries  to  win  new  lands  to  the  empire  of 
the  Cross ;  and  the  highest  learning,  the  best  educa- 
tion, and  the  only  one  which  she  regards  as  necessary, 
will  be  the  knowledge  of  the  way  of  eternal  life.  In  a 
word,  the  Church  looks  to  the  after-life  for  the  final 
result  of  her  labors  here.  M,  de  Laveleye  would  have 
us  sum  up  the  account  here,  and  see  which  way  the 
balance  lies.  We  tell  him  plainly  lie  must  wait  for  the 


APPENDIX.  237 

hereafter  if  he  is  to  give  any  really  sound  judgment 
upon  the  results  of  Catholicism.  A  "  religion  of  pros- 
perity "  is,  of  course,  quite  conceivable.  Its  precepts 
would  be  of  a  very  different  character  from  those  of  the 
Church.  If  any  nation  could  possibly  adopt  it  and 
follow  it,  it  would  perhaps  make  it  more  prosperous,  in 
a  worldly  sense,  than  any  Catholic  nation  has  ever 
been  ;  but  he  would  be  a  poor  reasoner  who  would  con- 
demn Catholicity  for  failing  in  a  comparison  with  the 
worship  of  the  gods  of  wealth  and  ease  made  by  one  of 
the  worshippers. 

RELIGION  AND  PROSPERITY. 

We  do  not,  for  a  moment,  mean  to  deny  that  indi- 
rectly the  religion  of  a  people  may  affect  its  material 
prosperity.  A  religious  people  who,  as  a  body,  are 
chaste,  sober,  honest,  orderly,  and  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent  industrious,  will  probably,  in  the  long  run, 
find  themselves  in  a  better  position  than  an  irreligious 
people,  placed  in  fairly  similar  circumstances.  But 
unless  the  conditions  are  precisely  similar  in  every  re- 
spect we  cannot  say  more  than  this,  we  cannot  say  cer- 
tainty, instead  of  probably.  And  the  conditions  are 
never  more  than  approximately  alike,  and  the  approxi- 
mation is  generally  a  very  rough  one.  Hence  the  diffi- 
culty of  finding  a  practical  test  for  our  theory.  "We 
have  said,  too,  that  they  will  probably  find  themselves 
'•in  a  better  position  "  materially ;  we  cannot  say  more 
than  this  ;  we  cannot  be  more  definite ;  we  cannot  say 
they  will  be  a  wealthy  people,  a  race  of  conquerors, 
merchants,  or  colonists ;  we  only  know  that  they  will, 
if  the  conditions  are  alike,  be  healthier,  less  liable  to 
sudden  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  less  troubled  by  vice 
and  pauperism,  the  two  scourges  of  modern  commu- 
nities. 

If,  therefore,  we  add  to  the  material  factors  of  pros- 


238  NOTES  FROM   "  THE  DUBLIN  REVIEW." 

perity  those  belonging  to  the  moral  order,  we  should 
expect  to  see  a  higher  standard  reached  by  Catholic 
than  the  non-Catholic  nations.  The  fault,  the 
radical  error  of  M.  de  Laveleye's  estimate  of  the 
relative  position  of  Catholic  and  non- Catholic 
hands  is,  that  too  often  he  judges  by  a  purely  material 
criterion.  That  a  nation  is  successful  in  war  or  in 
commerce  by  no  means  proves  the  superiority  of  the 
religion  it  professes.  In  commerce  the  scattered  na- 
tion of  the  Jews  have  certainly  surpassed  the  Christians, 
but  no  Jew  would  ever  think  of  alleging  this  as  an 
argument  against  the  Gentiles.  The  nation  which  has 
made  the  most  rapid,  the  most  astounding  "progress" 
in  our  own  days,  if  we  use  the  word  progress  as  M.  de 
Laveleye  would  use  it,  is  Japan  ;  yet  this  hardly  tends 
to  prove  even  the  material  advantages  of  the  modified 
form  of  Buddhism  which  is  professed  at  Yeddo  and 
Yokohama.  Nor  would  any  sensible  man  urge  the 
rapid  conquest  of  the  Mahometans,  their  progress, 
science  and  learning,  and  the  culture  of  the  old  courts 
of  Bagdad  and  Granada,  as  proofs  of  the  superiority  of 
Islamism  over  the  religion  of  Europe  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury. The  argument  derived  from  purely  material 
prosperity  is  an  essentially  fallacious  one  in  the  mouth 
of  all  except  materialists.  They  may  consistently 
urge  it,  and  make  the  most  of  it.  But  we  believe  M. 
de  Laveleye  professes  to  be  a  Christian,  as  certainly 
does  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  has  introduced  the  work  to 
the  English  public.  "We  are,  therefore,  not  a  little 
surprised  at  the  method  of  proof  which  it  attempts, 
the  theory  it  brings  forward.  If  M.  de  Laveleye 
would,  throughout  argue  that  Protestantism  makes 
men  better  and  holier  than  Catholicity,  he  would  he 
consistent;  but  he  insists  far  more  strougly  that  it 
makes  them  wealthier,  freer,  and  more  powerful,  or  ut 
least,  that,  whatever  may  be  the  reason,  Protestants 


APPENDIX.  233 

enjoy  all  these  advantages  in  a  higher  degree  than 
Catholics,  and  that  it  is  hard  to  resist  the  conclusion 
that  the  reason  of  it  lies  in  their  Protestantism.  But 
wealth,  political  freedom,  and  military  power  aio 
hardly  religious  questions,  and  we  repeat,  M,  cb 
Laveleye  cannot,  from  his  point  of  view,  make  a  fair 
comparison. 

He  is  closing  the  account  and  striking  the  balance 
before  the  proper  time.  Truly  national  prosperity 
consists  in  a  nation's  living  so  that  it  may  have  many 
representatives  in  heaven  hereafter,  and  no  one  can 
prove  to  us  that  Catholicity  is  not  better  calculated 
than  Protestantism  to  produce  this  result. 

THE   GEBMAN   CATHOLICS. 

There  is,  however,  another  difficulty  in  making  a 
fair  comparision.  We  may  speak  of  a  country  as  being 
Catholic  which  contains  a  large  non- Catholic,  or  even 
anti-Catholic,  element  ;  and  how  are  we  to  know  to 
what  extent  this  factor  in  the  problem  tends  to  lower 
the  standard  of  prosperity  on  the  one  hand,  or  moral- 
ity on  the  other  ?  M.  de  Laveleye  cites  France  and 
Italy  as  Catholic  countries,  and  he  is  right  ;  but  only 
with  an  important  reservation.  No  one  will  deny  that 
in  France  there  is  an  anti-Catholic  party,  the  litera- 
ture of  which  is  to  a  great  extent  irreligious  and*  im- 
moral ;  yet  the  misdeeds  of  this  party,  which  every 
Catholic  reprobates, are  coolly  urged  by  M.  de  Laveleye 
to  turn  the  sc'ale  against  Catholic  France  in  a  compari- 
son with  Germriby  or  England.  Again,  in  the  case  of 
a  Protestant  nation  there  is  often  an  important  Catho- 
lic section  of  the  population  left  wholly  out  rf  account ; 
this  is  especially  the  case  with  regard  to  Germany.  In 
South  Germany  there  are  five  millions  of  Catholics  out 
of  a  total  population  of  eight  millions.  Bavaria  and 
Baden  are  in  fact  Catholic  countries.  Yet  M.  de 


210     NOTES  FKOM  "THE  DUBLIN  BE  VIEW." 

Laveleye  takes  rno  account  whatever  of  the  German 
Catholics,  except  to  depreciate  them.     He  refers  inci- 
dentally to  the  German  conquest  of  France  as  a  proof 
of  Protestant  superiority ;  perhaps  he  has  forgotten 
the  story  of   the  war.     Prince  Bismarck's  and  Von 
Moltke's  victories  were  more  than  once  bought  with 
Catholic  blood.     At  Woerth,  at  Sedan,  and  on  the 
battle-fields  of    the  Loire,   tha  valour  of    Bavarian 
Catholics  went  far  to  turn  the  tide  of  success  against 
France.     M.  de  Laveleye's  argument  is  really  a  very 
loosely- construe  ted  one,  and  prejudice  plays  a  large 
part  in  it,  making  him  forget  at  the  same  time  that 
Germany  owes  much  to  her  Catholic  subjects,  and  that 
in  much  that  he  lays  to  the  charge  of  France,  Catholic 
France  has  had  no  part.     He  makes  a  pretence  of  im. 
partiality — a  pretence  which  has  deceived  many  of  his 
readers,  as,  perhaps,  it  deceived  himself.     "  Sectarian 
pa&sions,"  he  says,  "  or  anti-religious  prejudice,  have 
been  too  often  imported  into  the  study  of  these  ques- 
tions. Ifc  is  time  that  we  should  apply  to  it  the  method 
of  observation,  and  the  scientific  impartiality  of  the 
physiologist  and  the  naturalist.     When  the  facts  are 
once  established,   irrefragable  conclusions  will     fol- 
low."    He  does  not,  however,  fulfil  his  promise  ;  he 
treats  his  subject  in  a  most  unscientific,  a  most  illogi- 
cal manner,  and  therefore  arrives  at  conclusions  which 
are  simply  worthless.    This  is  evident  from  the  out- 
set. 

In  proof  of  his  first  point,  that  "  in  one  and  the 
same  country,  and  in  one  and  the  same  group,  identi- 
cal in  language  and  identical  in  origin,  Protestants 
advance  more  rapidly  and  steadily  than  Catholics,"  he 
compares  the  Scotch  and  the  Irish.  Early  in  the  Mid- 
dle ages,  he  tells  us,  Ireland  was  "  a  focus  of  civiliza- 
tion, while  Scotland  was  a  den  of  barbarians  "  ;  but, 
he  says,  since  the  Reformation  Scotland  has  surpassed 


APPENDIX,  2  it 

even  England  itself,  and  while  Ireland  is  poor  and 
miserable,  Scotland  is  peaceful  and  prosperous  ;  and, 
more  than  this,  in  the  very  same  country,  Protestant 
Ulster  is  wealthy,  while  Catholic  Comiaught  is  wretch- 
edly poor.  The  comparison  is  not  a  new  one,  it  has 
been  often  made  ;  but  it  is  a  most  unfair  one. 

THE  SCOTCH    AND    IBISH. 

In  the  first  place,  the  Scotch  are  not  "of  the  same 
language  and  of  the  same  origin  "  as  the  Irish.  This 
is  true  only  of  a  small  portion  of  the  Scottish  race,  * — 
the  Highlanders  and  the  Islesmen  ;  and  we  doubt  if 
the  Highlands  can  be  called  "  prosperous,"  for  their 
"progress  "  has  consisted  chiefly  in  the  substitution 
of  sheep  and  black  cattle,  grouse  and  deer,  for  men. 
Again, the  races  differ  equally  in  Ulster  and  Oonnaught. 
In  Connaught  we  have  descendants  of  an  early  Celtic 
race, in  Ulster  a  colony  of  English  and  Lowland  Scotch, 
But  the  question  of  race  is  a  minor  one,  and  we  allude 
to  it  here  in  order  to  show  how  hollow  is  M.  de  Lavel- 
eye's  parade  of  scientific  method.  The  comparison 
he  has  made  errs  in  matters  of  far  greater  moment. 
The  causes  of  the  prosperity  of  Scotland,  and  the  want 
of  prosperity  in  Ireland4  are  to  be  sought  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  two  countries.  Scotland  has  been  emi- 
nently fortunate.  She  was  united  with  England  on 
equal  terms  ;  she  preserved  her  own  laws,  her  own 
courts,  her  own  local  institutions.  Her  manufac- 
turers competed  on  equal  terms  with  the  English 
trader;  the  capital  of  the  richer  country  was 

*Sutherlandshire  may  be  cited  as  an  example  of  rapid  pro- 
gress ;  but  the  Duke  of  Sutherland  is  descended  from  a 
wealthy  English  family,  whose  capital  has  been  employed  in 
reclaiming  the  waste  lands  of  this  northern  shire,  with  the 
help  of  steam  and  machinery.  The  progress  of  Scotland  in 
this  instance  IB  really  th*  result  of  English  enterprise. 


212  NOTES  FROM    "THE   DUBLIN    BE  VIEW/' 

y 

placed  freely  at  her  disposal ;  under  her  own 
free  laws  her  educational  system  was  steadily  de- 
veloped; finally,  there  were  no  wholesale  confis- 
cations of  land ;  there  was  no  alien  colony,  no  laws 
passed  in  the  interest  of  a  minority  ;  no  State  Church 
established  in  the  interest  of  the  few.  On  the  other 
hand,  all  the  miseries  that  Scotland  escaped  were  in- 
flicted on  Ireland  ;  of  all  the  advantages  that  Scotland 
possessed,  Ireland  was  deliberately  and  systematically 
deprived.  The  English  rule  was  firmly  established 
in  Ireland  by  the  wars  of  the  Tudor s,  and  from  the 
outset  she  was  governed  in  the  interest  of  the  English 
colony.  Repeated  confiscations  ruined  the  native  pro- 
prietors, and  placed  the  land  of  the  country  in  the 
hands  of  men  who  were  really  foreigners,  who  spoke 
not  a  word  of  the  Irish  language,  who  professed  a 
strange  religion,  who,  in  a'  word,  were  an  armed  gar- 
rison holding  Ireland  in  their  own  interest.  The  faith 
of  the  Irish  was  proscribed,  and  those  who  held  that 
faith  were  systematically  plundered  and  persecuted. 
More  than  once  they  took  up  arms  against  the  intoler- 
able tyranny,  only  to  be  defeated  and  placed  more 
completely  in  the  power  of  their  Protestant  rulers. 
Their  schools  were  destroyed,  the  laws  were  directed 
as  much  against  the  Catholic  schoolmaster  as  the 
Catholic  priest.  Their  trade  was  destroyed  by  law 
for  the  protection  of  English  commerce  and  English 
manufactures.*  An  Irishman  and  a  Catholic  could  not 
have  his  children  educated  in  his  own  country  ;  could 
only  practise  his  religion  by  stealth  ;  could  not  aspire 
to  any  civil  or  military  dignity  ;  could  not  even  have 

*The  wool  trade  is  a  case  in  point.  Even  such  a  work  as 
Mr.  Froude's  " English  in  Ireland"  gives  evidence  enough  in- 
cidentally to  convince  any  one  that  the  worst  forms  of  protec- 
tion were  used  to  destroy  Jrish,  to  the  advantage  of  English 
trade. 


APPENDIX.  243 

a  horse  worth  more  than  five  pounds  in  his  possession. 
It  is  only  in  our  own  day  that  this  iniquitous  system 
has  been  entirely  broken  up.*  The  downfall  of  the 
Irish  Church  Establishment  is  an  event  not  ten  years 
old.  Catholic  emancipation  is  a  work  of  less  than 
fifty  years  ago.  If  then  Ireland,  as  compared  with 
Scotland,  is  so  "poor  and  wretched,"  the  fault  must 
be  laid  at  the  doors  of  Protestant  tyranny  and  intoler- 
ance. It  is  not  the  fault  of  Catholicism,  unless  per- 
haps in  one  sense.  Had  the  people  abandoned  their 
religion,  they  might  have  freed  themselves  from  all 
disabilities  ;  but  they  preferred  their  faith  to  earthly 
goods  ancl  earthly  prosperity,  and  they  chose  to  Buf- 
fer as  Catholic,  rather  than  share  the  good  things  of 
this  world  with  their  all-powerful  Protestant  rulers. 
This,  too,  explains  the  difference  between  Ulster  and 
Connaught ;  but  in  that  case  we  must  also  remember 
that  Connaught  is  naturally  a  wilderness  of  bog  and 
mountain,  when  compared  to  Ulster.  Place  the  most 
industrious  race  on  earth  in  Connaught  and  a  far  in» 
ferior  people  in  Ulster,  and  the  Ulster  men  would  in 
the  course  rf  a  few  years  be  wealthier  and  more  pros- 
perous in  every  respect.  The  comparison  between 
Ulster  and  Connaught  is  most  misleading,  so  far  as  the 
question  of  wealth  is  concerned.  We  shall,  however, 
have  to  compare  them  in  another  and  more  important 
respect  later  en,  and  we  shall  find  that  then  the  ad- 

*  "The  Irish  Catholics,"  says  Bishop  Spalding,  "are  taun- 
ted with  their  misery  when,  for  two  centuries  they  lived  under 
a  code  whicn  placed  them  outside  the  pale  of  humanity,  of 
which  Lord  Brougham  said  that  it  was  so  ingeniously  con- 
trived that  an  Irish  Catholic  could  not  lift  up  his  hand  without 
breaking  it,  and  which  Edmund  Burke  denounced  as  the  most 
proper  machioe  ever  invented  by  the  wit  of  man  to  disgrace  a 
realm  and  degrade  a  people."— .Essays,  Reply  to  M»  deLavel- 
eye,  p.  100 


244  NOTES  FBOM    "THE   DUBLIN   BEVIEW." 

vantage  is  with  poor  Catholic  Connaught.  A  few  years 
ago  M.  Boussel,  a  French  Protestant pasteur,  travelled 
in  Ireland  and  published  a  pamphlet  in  which  he 
adopted  the  same  fallacious  line  of  argument  as  that 
of  M.  de  Laveleye.  The  work  is  severely  criticised 
by  a  clever  writer,  who  is  neither  a  Catholic  nor  a 
friend  to  Catholicism,  M.  John  Lemoinne,  of  the 
"  Debate."  We  must  quote  at  second-hand  from  M. 
de  Haulleville  some  of  his  remarks  : 

"When  M.  Boussel  travelled  in  Ireland,"  asks  M.  John 
Lemoinue,  "  did  he  ne\er  feel  any  remorse  of  con- 
science ?  Did  he  never  ask  himself  whether  the  Pro- 
testants had  not  something  to  do  with  the  misery  of 
this  Catholic  land  ?  It  the  Protestants  only  form  one 
tenth  part  of  the  population  of  Ireland,  by  what  right 
have  they  laid  violent  hands  on  all  the  property  and 
revenues  of  the  Catholic  Church  ?  And  when  M. 
Boussel,  in  order  to  prove  that  the  Catholics  are  no 
longer  oppressed  in  Ireland,  tells  us  that  they  have 
four  archbishops,  twenty- three  bishops,  2,500  churches, 
and  more  than  2,000  priests,  how  is  it  that  he  ex- 
presses no  admiration  for  this  race  of  poor  men,  who, 
despite  their  misery,  find  the  means  to  support  their 
Church,  while  the  Protestant  bishops,  and  the  Protest- 
ant ministers,  in  virtue  of  an  act  of  confiscation,  live 
on  the  fat  of  the  laud?  How  is  it  that  a  minister  of 
the  Gospel  does  not  recall  these  simple  words: — 'Amen 
I  say  to  you,  this  poor  widow  hath  cast  in  more  than 
all  they  who  have  cast  into  the  treasury.  For  all  they 
did  cast  in  of  their  abundance ;  but  she  of  her  want 
cast  in  all  she  had,  even  her  whole  living?  * ' 

UD fortunately,  M.  de  Laveleye  writes  in  the  spirit 
of  M.  Boussel  rather  than  that  of  M.  John  Lemohme. 
He  forgets  that  the  Irish  have  had  to  struggle  for  bare 
existence.  If  he  is  not  ignorant  of  their  history,  he 
has  wilfully  disregarded  it.  We  believe  the  next  fifty 


APPENDIX.  245 

years  will  clearly  show  that  Catholic  Ireland  is  able  to 
hold  its  own,  even  in  the  field  of  purely  material  pros- 
perity. Irishmen  in  other  lands  have  shown  that  they 
are  wanting  neither  in  industry  nor  in  enterprise.  The 
late  Mr.  Maguire's  well-known  work  on  the  Irish  race 
in  America  certainly  tends  to  shovv  that  their  Catho- 
licity is  no  barrier  to  the  success  of  Irishmen,  if  they 
only  are  allowed  a  fair  field  for  their  exertions. 

But  M.  de  Laveleye  does  not  rely  only  upon  this 
comparison  of  Ireland  and  Scotland.  He  has  other 
evidence.  He  quotes  from  Mr.  Hep  worth  Dixon's 
book  on  Switzerland  to  show  that  in  one  and  the  same 
canton  the  Catholics  and  the  Protestants  present  a 
contrast  to  the  advantage  of  the  latter.  The  canton  of 
Appenzell  is  divided  into  the  two  districts  of  Inner 
Khoden,  inhabited  by  11,900  Catholics,  and  Ausser 
Bhoden,  which  has  a  population  of  46,726  Protestants. 
Mr.  Hepworth  Dixon  describes  the  Protestants  as  in- 
dustrious and  rich  ;  the  Catholics  as  lazy,  poor,  ignor- 
ant, living  in  scattered  huts,  and  meeting  only  at  mass 
or  at  their  popular  sports.  He  adds,  with  a  sneer,  that 
instead  of  books  and  newspapers  they  read  the  livee 
of  the  saints.  For  our  part  we  are  very  glad  to  hear 
it,  much  more  pleased  indeed  than  if  we  were  told  that 
the  good  people  of  Inner  Bhoden  read  the  works  of 
Mr.  Hepworth  Dixon,  or  even  those  of  M.  de  Laveleye. 
Here,  however,  the  comparison  is  again  a  misleading 
one.  From  information  obtained  on  the  spot,  M.  de 
Haulleville  tells  us  that  the  towns  and  villages  of  Aus- 
per  Bhoden  stand  in  a  fertile  low-lying  district,  and 
that,  in  point  of  wealth,  their  Protestant  inhabitants 
are  naturally  in  a  better  position  than  the  Catholics 
of  the  mountain  district  of  Inner  Bhoden,  who  are  a 
scattered  race  of  shepherds.  The  charge  of  ignorance 
is  an  idle  one.  Mr.  Dixon  himself  admits  that  every 
one  of  these  Catholic  mountaineers  can  read  and 


246  NOTES  FBOM    "THE    DUBLIN   REVIEW." 

write,  and  the  charge  really  is  based  upon  their 
strange  habit  of  persisting  in  reading  the  lives  of  the 
saints  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Bat  this  is  not  all,  M.  de  Laveleye  has  yet  another 
argument.  He  speaks  of  Nimes  as  a  kind  of  Protest- 
ant oasis  of  prosperity  in  the  S  uth  of  France,  and  he 
quotes  a  certain  M.  Audiganne  to  show  that  while  the 
capitalists  of  Nimes  are  Protestants,  the  workmen  are 
Catholics.  To  our  minds,  this  is  as  good  an  argument 
for  us  as  for  him.  Whence  came  the  wealth  of  these 
Protestants  in  the  first  instance  we  cannot  say;  but 
this  is  certain,  for  its  preservation  and  its  increase 
they  have,  as  he  himself  tells  us,  to  depend  upon  the 
industry,  the  steadiness,  and  the  skill  of  Catholics. 
Of  t;ie  two  factors  of  the  prosperity  of  Nimes,  one  is 
Protestant,  the  other  Catholic.  How  this  in  any  way 
supports  M.  de  Laveleye's  theory  we  fail  to  see. 

While  dealing  with  France,  he  refers,  of  course,  to 
the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  as  having  de- 
prived France  of  a  hosb  of  skilled  workmen,  and  estab- 
lished abroad  injurious  centres  of  competition  against 
her  manufactures.  There  is  a  regular  tradition  about 
this  event ;  but  two  facts  are  nearly  always  overlooked 
in  discussing  it.  lirat,  the  exiles  did  not  introduce 
the  silk  manufacture  into  London :  there  is  document- 
ary evidence  that  there  were  silk- weavers,  and  French 
silk-weavers  too,  in  Spitalfields,  years  before  the  edicb 
was  revoked.  The  same  is  true  of  the  silk  manufac- 
ture of  the  Low  Countries.  Again,  hundreds,  perhaps 
thousands  of  the  exiles  and  emigrants  were  not  indus- 
trious workmen  at  all,  or,  if  they  were,  they  did  no 
work  after  they  left  France.  There  were  amongst 
them  a  considerable  number  of  officers  and  soldiers; 
and  in  the  armies  of  Prussia  and  of  the  House  of 
Orange  whole  companies  and  regiments  of  French 
Huguenots  fought  against  France,  under  Huguenot 


APPENDIX.  2i7 

officers.  We  shall  not  discuss  the  wisdom  or  the  folly 
of  the  revocation.  One  thing  is  certain,  it  has  but 
little  bearing  on  an  economic  question  like  the  one  be- 
fore us,  for  the  manufactures  and  the  trade  of  France 
suffered  no  great  loss  in  consequence  of  it.  We  re- 
turn to  M.  de  Laveleye's  contention,  that  Catholics 
arc  at  the  present  day,  on  the  whole,  less  prosperous 
than  Protestants. 

It  is  a  fact  that  in  Canada  and  the  United  States 
the  Catholics  are  as  active,  as  industrious,  and  as  suc- 
cessful as  their  Protestant  fellow  citizens,  though  our 
author  seems  to  doubt  it.  Of  the  prosperity  of  the 
Catholics  in  the  United  States  we  have  practical  proofs 
in  the  institutions  and  the  churches  they  have  founded 
and  endowed  ;  in  their  press  and  their  literature,  and 
in  their  munificent  offerings  to  the  Holy  See.  In 
Lower  Canada,  three-fourths  of  the  landed  property  is 
in  Catholic  hands  ;  in  Upper  Canada  there  are  thous- 
ands of  successful  emigrants  from  Catholic  Ireland. 
The  fact  is,  that  M.  de  Laveleye's  second  point,  the 
assertion  that  when  the  two  religions  exist  in  one 
country  the  Protestants  are  more  prospeious  than  the 
Catholics,  cannot  be  proved  to  be  true  as  a  general 
rule,  and  there  are  many  facts  which  directly  con- 
tradict it.  In  Prussia  the  Catholic  provinces  are  the 
richest  portions  of  the  State.  Westphalia,  Silesia,  and 
the  Bhine  Province  enjoy  a  considerable  amount  of 
prosperity,  while  the  Protestant  provinces  of  Pomer- 
ania,  Prussia,  and  Brandenburg  are  the  poorest,  and 
furnish  the  largest  contingent  to  the  tide  of  emigra- 
tion. If  M.  de  Haulleville  is  correctly  informed,  the 
Catholic  people  of  the  district  of  Ermland  are  in  a  bet- 
ter position  in  the  matter  of  wealth  and  comfort  than 
those  of  all  the  rest  of  their  province,  which  is. the 
Lutheran  province  of  Prussia  proper.  There  are  poor 
Catholic  districts  indeed  in  Silesia  and  Pomerania  ; 


248  NOTES  FEOM    "  THE  DUBLIN  BEVIEW." 

but  we  have  not  far  to  seek  for  the  causes  of  their 
poverty, — a  bad  administration,  and  the  suppression 
of  the  monasteries  and  the  secularization  of  their  prop- 
erty, during  the  present  century,  is,  perhaps,  sufS- 
cent  to  explain  it.  But  even  if  it  does  not,  the  ex- 
ception proves  nothing.  We  have  only  to  show  that 
M.  de  Laveleye's  premises  are  false,  or  IT'S  reasoning 
fallacious,  in  order  to  destroy  his  argument.  But  we 
believe  we  have  succeeded  in  doing  not  one  but  both 
of  these  things,  and  his  theory  therefore  falls  to  the 
ground.  Let  us  proceed,  however,  to  examine  the 
other  points  which  we  have  enumerated. 

The  assertion  that  in  Germany  the  press  and  the 
book-trade  are  entirely  in  non-Catholic  hands  is  in 
form  a  matter  of  detail  ;  but  it  is  really  put  forward 
to  make  the  reader  infer  that  the  intellectual  position 
of  the  Catholics  of  Germany  is  a  low  one.  Like  many 
other  of  M.  de  Laveleye's  assertions,  it  is  wholly  in- 
correct. It  is  based  upon  a  false  view  of  the  state  of* 
affairs.  The  book-trade  of  Germany  is.  in  the  main, 
concentrated  at  Leipzig.  Even  Berlin,  M.  de  Haulle- 
ville  tells  us,  has  contended  in  vain  against  the  virtual 
monopoly  created  by  the  "Leipzig  book-fair."  Now, 
if  M.  de  Laveleye  looks  only  to  Leipzig,  he  is  right  in 
asserting  that  the  trade  is  in  the  hands  of  Jews  and 
Protestants,  for  Catholic  books  are  banished  from  it ; 
but  Catholic  publishing  houses  have  sprung  up  in 
other  parts  of  Germany.  The  Catholic  literature  of 
the  country  is  both  valuable,  from  the  learning  of  its 
aathors,  and  most  extensive  in  its  range  of  subjects. 
Of  this  M.  de  Laveleye  must  be  as  well  aware  as  we 
are.  The  catalogues  of  any  great  library  would  tell 
him  as  much.  The  "  Katholik  "  of  Mayence  holds  a 
high  rank  amongst  the  periodicals  of  Germany  ;  and 
in  the  press  we  may  notice  two  ably- written,  well-in- 
formed, and  thoroughly  independent  papers,  the 


APPENDIX.  249 

"  Koelnische  Volkszeitung  "*  of  Cologne  and  the  well- 
known  "  Germania  "  of  Berlin.  la  all,  there  are  no 
less  than  300  Catholic  newspapers  in  Germany,  and 
this  large  press  maintains  its  position  notwithstand- 
ing continual  persecution  under  the  press  lawsf  on 
the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other,  the  competition  of  tne 
Liberal  press,  assisted  as  it  is  by  Government  infor- 
mation and  subventions  from  the  "  reptile  fund."  The 
Catholics  of  Germany  need  fear  no  comparison  with 
the  Protestants  in  the  field  of  literature  and  intellectual 
power. 

Name  me,  if  you  can  (says  M.  de  Haulleville),  a  great  Ger- 
man writer  since  the  death  of  Goerres,  Schlegel,  Eichendorf, 
and  the  Austrian  Griliparzer,|  who  were  all  Catholics,  and  of 
Heinrich  Heine,  who  was  a  Jew.  Who  are  the  orators  of  the 
Berlin  Parliament  ?  Herr  Lasker,  a  Jew,  and  Prince  Bismarck, 
a  sceptic,  who  blurts  out  his  words  and  talks  as  if  he  were 
firing  revolver  shots.  As  for  the  Catholic  Centre,  it  contains  a 
whole  group  of  orators  and  debaters, — Herr  Windthorst,  "  the 
pearl  of  Meppen  "  ;  Peter  and  Augustus  Eeichensperger  ;  the 
Baron  von  Schorlemer-Alost,  the  "  captain "  of  the  West- 
phalian  peasantry  ;  Canon  Moufaug  ;  and  Dr.  Joerg. 

The  very  existence  of  this  party  of  the  Centre,  or- 
ganized by  Mallinckrodt  and  Windthorst  since  1870,  is 
a  proof  of  the  intellectual  vigor  of  the  German  Catho- 
lics. But  the  charge  of  tending  to  thwart  and  stifle 
the  intellectual  development  of  her  children  is  a 
strange  one  to  bring  against  the  Catholic  Church.  On 

*  A  paper  more  than  once  confounded  with  the  well-known 
Liberal  "  Koelnische  Zeitung,"  to  the  mystification  of  the 
readers  of  the  Eeuter's  and  Havas  telegrams. 

f  The  "  Germania  "  has  had  the  honor  of  having  five  of  its 
staff  imprisoned  under  the  press  laws  in  the  course  of  three 
years  (1873-1875). 

£  "We  would  add  to  this  brief  list  the  Jesuit  Joseph  Kleutgen, 
the  exponent  and  defender  of  the  scholastic  philosophy,  who  is 
also  dead  within  the  last  three  years. 


250  NOTES  FBOM    "THE  DUBLIN  KEVIEW." 

this  point  M.  de  Laveleye's  prejudices  have  quite 
mastered  his  reason.  All  pretence  of  "  scientific 
method  "  disappears.  He  begs  the  whole  question 
•without  taking  the  least  trouble  to  conceal  the  fallacy. 

The  apathy  (he  says)  with  which  two  new  dogmas  have  re- 
cently been  received,  which  formerly  would  have  roused  the 
strongest  opposition  and  have  led  to  a  schism,  is  a  sign  of  the 
incredible  enfeeblement  of  all  intellectual  life  in  the  bosom  of 
the  Church  (p.  52). 

This  is  really  too  good.  We  have  here,  in  the  first 
place,  a  naive  confession  of  the  utter  failure  of  the 
much  vaunted  Alt-Katholik  movement.  For  '  *  apathy  " 
a  Catholic  will  read  "unity."  M.  de  Laveleye  must 
know  perfectly  well  that  the  man  who  refuses  a  duly- 
defined  dogma  of  the  Faith  ceases  to  be  a  Catholic. 
His  statement  of  the  case,  therefore,  resolves  itself  into 
an  assertion,  that  because  Catholics  act  as  Catholics, 
and  remain  Catholics,  they  must  be  men  of  feeble  in- 
tellect. This,  however,  requires  to  be  proved.  M.  de 
Laveleye  assumes  it.  He  knows  he  is  not  writing  for 
very  critical  readers.  That  is  the  secret  of  his  bold 
assertions. 

The  fourth  proposition  that  we  have  extracted  from 
M.  de  Laveleye's  pamphlet  is  to  the  effect  that — 

The  nations  subject  to  Borne  seem  stricken  with  barrenness; 
they  no  longer  colonize,  they  have  no  power  of  expansion.  . 
.  .  Their  past  is  brilliant,  but  their  present  is  gloomy  and 
their  future  disquieting. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  answer  this.  England,  a  Pro- 
testant power,  is  certainly  the  great  colonizer  of  our 
day.  But  she  does  not  stand  alone.  France  has  an 
eminently  successful  colony  in  Algeiia,  another  in 
Cochin  China.  The  conquest  and  colonization  of 
Algiers  was  conceived  by  French  statesmen  duiiug  the 
reign  of  Charles  X. ;  it  was  under  the  white  Hag  that 
the  French  army  and  navy  attacked  and  conquered 


APPENDIX.  251 

Algiers,  and  destroyed  the  last  home  of  piracy  in  the 
Mediterranean.  But  more  than  this,  even  the  colonial 
empire  of  England  owes  much  to  Catholic  enterprise. 
In  the  present  day  how  many  of  her  colonists  in  Cana- 
da, at  the  Cape,  in  Australia,  Tasmania,  New  Zealand, 
are  Catholic  Irishmen  ;  and  in  the  past  many  of  her 
most  successful  colonies  were  founded  by  Catholic 
France,  and  fell  into  the  hands  of  England  only  by  the 
chance  of  war.  This  is  notably  the  case  with  regard 
to  Canada.  That  splendid  colony  was  won  for  Eng- 
land by  the  valor  of  Wolfe  after  it  had  been  found- 
ed by  the  enterprise  and  piety  of  Champlain.  Can- 
ada is  to  this  day  a  Catholic  country.  All  its  tradi- 
tions are  Catholic.  Its  founders  avowedly  wished  to 
create  a  Catholic  State,  a  centre  from  which  the  light 
of  the  Gospel  might  be  carried  into  the  woods  of  the 
Great  West.  The  story  of  the  deeds  of  Champlain 
and  his  companions  is  only  too  little  known  in  Eng- 
land. It  is  a  bright  page  in  the  story  of  Catholic  col- 
onization. Many  of  the  most  famous  cities  of  Canada 
were  once  humble  mission  stations.  In  the  autumn  of 
1641  a  priest  and  a  few  nuns,  with  some  workmen — in 
all  thirty  persons — landed  on  an  island  in  the  St.  Law- 
rence, and  erected  a  few  huts  and  tents,  a  church  built 
of  wood  felled  on  the  spot,  a  little  hospital,  and  a 
school  for  the  Indian  children.  This  was  the  mission 
station  of  the  Hochelaga ;  it  is  now  the  city  of  Mon- 
treal.* This  Catholic  colony  is  now  a  flourishing  por- 
*  We  cannot  mention  Canada  without  alluding  to  an  enter- 
prise of  Catholic  colonization  belonging  to  the  last  few  years. 
In  1871  a  party  of  Catholic  Zouaves,  who  had  just  retired  from 
Rome,  obtained  some  lands  in  the  heart  of  the  forests  of  Cana- 
da, cleared  the  ground,  built  a  village,  which  is  now  rapidly  be- 
coming a  town,  and  brought  the  adjacent  land  under  cultiva* 
tion.  The  little  Catholic  colony,  now  less  than  aix  years  old, 
has  prospered  beyond  all  expectation.  It  bears  the  name  of 
Piopolis,  in  honor  of  Pius  IX. 


252  NOTES  FROM   "THE  DUBLIN  BEVIEW." 

tion  of  the  colonial  empire  of  England  ;  but  it  is  only 
fair  to  remember  what  was  its  origin.  The  Catholic 
missionaries  have  been  in  the  past  the  pioneers  of 
Catholic  colonization  in  other  places  besides  Canada. 
The  first  white  man  who  ever  looked  upon  the  waters 
of  the  Mississippi  was  a  French  Jesuit,  the  Pere  Mar- 
quette.  A  few  years  after,  France  founded  the  colony 
of  Louisiana,  which  was  transferred  by  treaty  to  the 
American  Union  in  the  first  years  of  this  century. 
The  colonies  of  Spain  in  the  Philippines  belong  to  the 
same  class.  Here,  too,  the  missionary  came  with  the 
trader.  Sir  John  Bo  wring  has  spoken  of  the  Jesuits  of 
the  Philippines  as  the  pioneers  and  the  founders  of 
civilization  in  the  great  Eastern  archipelago.  India  is 
the  chief  gem  of  the  Imperial  crown  of  England,  but 
there  were  days  when  only  the  chance  of  war  decided 
who  should  hold  it,  Protestant  England  or  Catholic 
France.  Dupleix  was  the  first  European,  who,  in 
modern  times,  conceived  the  bold  plan  of  founding  an 
Indian  Empire,  and  he  only  failed  in  winning  it  for 
France  because  he  was  opposed  by  the  military  skill 
and  the  wondrous  good  fortune  of  Clive.  * 

The  charge  of  barrenness  in  the  matter  of  colonies, 
therefore,  counts  for  nothing.  The  colonial  empire  of 
England  owes  much  to  Catholics,  and  France  is  at 
once  a  Catholic  nation  and  a  colonizing  power,  f  But 
M.  de  Laveleye  adds,  that  though  the  past  of  the 

*The  capture  of  Arcot  was  the  real  beginning  of  England's  career  of 
conquest  in  India.  Clive  owed  his  success  entirely  to  the  chance  that 
he  was  able  to  attack  in  the  midst  of  a  thunder-storm,  when  the  su- 
perstition of  the  Hindus  deprived  them  of  all  power  of  resistance. 

t  We  must  reply  in  a  note  to  a  note  of  M.  de  Laveleye's.  The  only 
fact  he  gives  in  support  of  his  statement  that  Catholic  nations  no 
longer  colonize,  is  contained  in  a  note,  which  states  that  in  1867  the 
Comte  de  Beauvoir,  on  visiting  the  island  of  Sha  Myen  in  the  Canton 
river,  ceded  in  1861  to  France  and  E  'gland,  found  in  the  English 
half  of  the  island  a  village  built  in  six  year j,  a  Protestant  church, 


APPENDIX.  253 

Catholic  nations  is  brilliant,  their  present  is  gloomy, 
their  future  disquieting.  On  this  point  he  expresses 
an  opinion,  rather  than  states  any  demonstrable  fact. 
We  differ  from  him  in  opinion,  but  the  matter  is  so 
much  one  of  feeling,  of  political  insight  and  forecast, 
that  we  freely  grant  that  it  would  be  as  difficult  for  us 
to  demonstrate  the  truth  of  our  judgment  as  it  would 
be  for  him  to  prove  its  contrary.  We  may,  however, 
bring  forward  certain  considerations  in  support  of  it. 
At  present  Germany  is  the  strongest  power  in  Europe; 
England,  probably,  stands  next.  Both  of  these  are 
Protestant  nations,  though  much  of  their  power  they 
owe  to  Catholics.  When  Prussia  began  her  ca- 
reer of  victory  in  1864,  more  than  a  third  of  her  peo- 
ple were  Catholics.  At  this  moment  one-third  of  the 
subjects  of  the  German  Empire  are  "  subjects  to 
Rome,"  to  use  our  author's  favorite  phrase.  As  for 
England,  the  Duke  of  Wellington  declared  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  that  one-half  of  the  men  whom  he  led 
to  victory  in  the  Peninsula  were  Catholics;  and  we 
have  it  on  the  authority  of  Sir  Henry  Havelock  that 
the  pith,  the  central  strength  of  the  army  that  saved 
our  Indian  Empire  in  1857  was  composed  of  Catholic 
Irishmen,  who,  a  few  years  before,  had  enlisted  during 
the  time  of  terrible  suffering  that  followed  the  great 
famine.  At  present  Austria  and  France,  the  two  great 
Catholic  nations,  are  suffering  from  the  effects  of  de- 
feat; but  who  knows  how  the  scale  will  turn  in  an- 

handsome  houses,  a  cricket-ground,  and  a  race-course;  while  the 
French  half  contained  only  uncultivated  trees,  rubbish,  moles,  and 
stray  dogs  and  cats  (which  last,  we  presume,  came  from  the  English 
village).  This,  he  supposes,  proves  a  "want  of  expansive  power"  in 
the  Catholic  nation.  It  only  proves  that  the  French  merchants  in 
China,  actuated  by  commerciar ideas  only,  have,  wisely  or  unwisely, 
as  the  case  may  be,  neglected  to  colonize  Sha  My  en .  If  M.  de  Lav- 
eleye  should  ever  visit  China,  he  will  find  a  nourishing  colony  at  Sai- 
gon, and  French  merchants  and  consuls  in  all  the  great  ports. 


254  NOTES  FROM   "  THE  DUBLIN  BEVISW." 

other  ten  years?  And,  after  all,  Catholicism  or  Pro- 
testantism has  but  little  to  do  with  military  success. 
Irish,  French,  and  Austrian  soldiers — yes,  and  Span- 
iards too — have  proved  again  and  again  that  in  any 
good  cause  the  Catholic  fears  not  to  peril  life 
and  limb.  The  glorious  records  of  Castelfidardo, 
Monte  Libretti,  and  Mentana,  more  than  prove  this, 
if,  indeed,  any  proof  were  needed.  Catholicity  has 
never  made  men  cowards;  it  has  often  made  them  he- 
roes. Had  the  Republicans  of  Paris  fought  but  half  as 
well  as  the  "  mercenaries'*  of  Pius  IX.  did  upon  the 
field  of  Loigny,  the  Prussian  dragoons  would  never 
have  marched  through  the  Arc  de  Triomphe. 

We  believe  in  the  future  of  the  Catholic  nations.  At 
this  very  moment  Austria  is  rapidly  becoming  again  an 
important  factor  in  the  politics  of  Central  Europe.  If 
Austria  and  France,  with  their  governments,  were 
thoroughly  Catholic,  we  should  have  but  little  fear  for 
them.  The  non-Catholic  element  in  France  is  the 
greatest  obstacle  to  her  prosperity.  We  believe,  too, 
in  the  future  of  Spain.  She  is  recovering  from  the 
loss  of  her  colonial  empire;  she  enjoys  peace;  statis- 
tics prove  that  her  wealth  and  her  population  are  in- 
creasing; her  resources  are  being  rapidly  developed; 
she  is  still  a  naval  power  of  some  weight,  and  she 
possesses  a  splendid  army.  If  her  statesmen  would 
but  abandon  Cuba  to  its  fate,  she  would  be  reUeved  at 
once  of  a  fearful  tax  of  blood  and  treasure.  Our  fore- 
cast may  not  be  a  correct  one,  but  numbers  of  un- 
prejudiced men  share  our  opinion.  Only  the  experi- 
ence of  the  next  few  years  can  verify  or  discredit  it. 
But,  however  this  may  be,  the  future  of  the  Protestant 
empire  of  Germany  and  the  future  of  M.  de  Laveleye's 
other  favorite,  the  empire  of  the  Czar,  are  not  wholly 
unclouded.  Socialism  in  Germany,  Nihilism  in  Rus- 
sia, are  sources  of  danger  that  are  not  to  be  contemned. 


APPENDIX.  255 

The  throne  of  the  Emperor  William  is  not,  after  all,  as 
secure  as  that  of  his  Imperial  brother  of  Catholic  Aus- 
tria; and  if  any  one  thing  is  being  clearly  brought  to 
light  in  the  field  of  European  politics,  it  is  the  fact 
that  the  "great  Slav  power"  ruled  by  the  Czar  is 
rotten  to  the  core. 

But  M.  de  Laveleye  points  to  another  aspect  of  the 
politics  of  the  Catholic  nations.  "  The  Catholic  coun- 
tries," he  says,  "on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  are  a 
prey  to  internal  struggles. "  Very  true,  at  least  in 
many  cases;  but  why  should  Catholicity  bear  the 
blame  of  this  ?  On  M.  de  Laveleye's  friends,  the  Lib- 
erals, must,  we  fear,  be  laid  by  far  the  greater  part  of 
the  blame  due  to  the  fomenters  of  the  troubles,  the 
"internal  struggles,"  the  revolutions  of  France,  Italy, 
Spain,  Portugal,  Mexico,  and  many  of  the  South 
American  States.  The  history  of  the  last  ninety  years 
proves  this.  But  is  it  Catholic  nations  only  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic  that  have  been  torn  by  internal 
struggles  of  late  years  ?  The  United  States  have  been 
spoken  of  as  held  by  a  Protestant  nation.  What  of  the 
great  conflict  that  raged  for  four  years  from  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  to  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  ?  And  in  Europe, 
was  there  not  bloodshed  in  the  streets  of  Berlin  in 
1848  ?  Did  not  German  armies  meet  in  civil  conflict 
as  lately  as  1866  ?  The  armies  that  marched  side  by 
side  into  France  in  1870  had  fired  upon  each  other  only 
four  years  before.  M.  de  Laveleye  has  a  wondrous 
faculty  of  forgetting.  He  forgets  what  Liberalism  has 
done  to  trouble  the  peace  of  Catholic  nations  ;  he 
forgets  that  Protestant  nations  have  had  their  periods 
of  difficulty  and  trial.  By  taking  such  an  imperfect 
view  of  the  position  of  affairs,  it  is  easy  to  "prove" 
anything. 

Throughout  M.  de  Laveleye  refers  again  and  again 
to  England  as  a  pattern  of  a  free  and  peaceful  nation. 


256  NOTES  FBOM   "THE  DUBLIN  REVIEW/' 

He  attributes  this  to  English  institutions,  and  to  Pro- 
testantism the  credit  of  their  success.  Here  again  he 
has  forgotten  the  teachings  of  history.  The  founda- 
tion of  the  institutions  of  England  was  laid  in  Catholic 
times  and  by  Catholic  hands.  No  nation  in  Europe 
has  in  its  constitution  and  laws  preserved  so  much 
that  belongs  to  its  old  Catholic  legislation.  Elsewhere 
the  continuity  has  been  broken  by  the  absolutism  of 
the  post-Reformation  period,  when  the  popular  lib- 
erties of  the  Middle  Ages  were,  in  most  countries, 
destroyed,  far  more  than  by  the  revolutions  of  the  last 
years  of  the  eighteenth  century.  This  is  a  wide  sub- 
ject, and  we  cannot  enter  upon  it  here.  The  single 
fact  that  the  Church  is  the  guardian  of  a  higher  law 
than  that  of  the  State  makes  her  the  best  guardian  of 
civil  liberty.  The  mediaeval  institutions  of  Italy, 
Spain,  France,  and  England  itself,  practically  prove 
this.  But  it  is  only  in  England  that  they  have  been 
preserved  and  developed  to  our  day.  How  this  has 
been  effected  is  a  question  for  history.  But  one  fact 
meets  us  on  the  very  threshold  of  the  inquiry.  Pro- 
testantism in  England  was  the  work  of  Tudor  despot- 
ism, which  paved  the  way  for  the  policy  of  the 
Stuarts,  and  by  an  unbroken  chain  of  events,  led  up 
to  the  civil  war  and  the  English  revolution. 

M.  de  Laveleye,  having  endeavored  to  show  that 
Catholicity  is  less  favorable  to  national  development 
than  Protestantism,  proceeds  to  indicate  what  he  sup- 
poses are  the  causes  of  this  inferiority  which  he  has 
alleged,  but  certainly  has  not  proved.  He  tells  us  that 
in  a  Catholic  country  the  priests  form  a  separate  caste, 
whose  interests  are  not  those  of  a  nation  at  large,  while 
in  a  Protestant  country  the  minister  is  none  the  less 
a  citizen  because  he  is  a  pastor.  We  can  only  speak 
of  this  as  a  calumny  against  the  Catholio  clergy.  It 
is  a  favorite  fiction  of  European  Liberalism,  but  im- 


APPENDIX.  257 

poses  upon  no  one.  Patriotism,  in  its  best  and  high- 
est sense  is  a  duty  imposed  upon  every  Catholic. 
Love  of  country,  loyalty,  respect  for  the  law — these 
are  things  which  the  Catholic  priesthood  has  ever  set 
before  t  'ue  people  as  essential  characteristics  of  the  citi- 
zens of  a  civilized  country.  In  Elizabeth's  days 
priests  were  indeed  tortured  and  executed  on  false 
charges  of  treason.  History  has  reversed  the  judg- 
ment of  hostile  courts,  and  it  is  now  clear  as  noonday 
that  the  men  who  suffered  and  died  at  Tyburne  for 
their  faith  were  as  loyal  Englishmen  as  they  were  good 
Catholics. 

M.  de  Laveleye,  however,  indicates  two  other  sources 
of  inferiority, — a  lower  standard  of  popular  education, 
and  a  lower  standard  of  morality  prevailing  among 
Catholic  than  among  Protestant  peoples.  Here  again, 
we  have  in  both  instances  assertion  without  proof. 
He  says,  indeed,  that  Catholics  regard  reading  as  the 
shortest  road  to  heresy;  that  the  Church  has  neglected 
education;  that  the  educational  system  of  Catholic 
countries  is  defective,  compared  to  that  of  Protestant 
nations;  that  "it  was  the  school  n  aster  that  conquered 
at  Sedan."*  Catholics  need  never  fear  any  candid  in- 
quiry into  the  Church's  influence  on  education.  There 

*  Whether  reading,  writing  and  aiithmetic  make  men  fight  better  is 
very  doubtful.  Prussia  had  a  system  of  compulsory  education  before 
1789,  yet  the  "schoolmaster"  did  not  conquer  at  Jena,  This  appe  1  to 
"the  ordeal  of  combat"  is  a  favorite  one  with  M  de  Laveleye,  but  it 
proves  nothing.  We  take  from  M.  de  Haulleville  the  following  re- 
marks as  one  of  his  minor  charges  against  France;  "M.  de  Laveleye 
asserts,"  he  says,  "that  during  the  war  of  1870  the  French  wounded 
(Catholics)  asked  for  playing-cards,  while  the  Prussian  convalescents 
only  a^ked  for  books,  I  heard  no  one  ask  for  cards  in  the  ambu- 
lances during  that  war,  but  I  know  that  many  of  the  German  wound- 
ed, Bavarians,  Rhinelandera,  Westphalians,  and  Poles  (Catholics),  wao 
had  been  shot  down  for  the  German  cause,  which  is  represented  now- 
adays as  the  cause  of  Protestantism,  protested  against  the  Protestant 
books  which  were  given  to  them.  The  service  of  the  hospital  had  pro- 
vided  for  everything  except  this."— p.  232. 


258  NOTES  FBOM   "THE  DUBLIN  BENIEW." 

were  schools  in  Europe  before  Martin  Luther's  days. 
He  certainly  did  not  learn  his  letters  from  a  Protestant 
schoolmaster.  Nine-tenths  of  the  universities  of  Eu- 
rope trace  back  their  origin  to  Catholic  times.  There 
was  hardly  an  abbey  in  the  Middle  Ages  that  had  not 
its  school.  The  author  of  "Christian  Schools  and 
Christian  Scholars"  has  shown  clearly  that  the  primary 
school  is  not  an  invention  of  the  nineteenth  century,* 
At  the  present  day  the  Catholic  Belgian  province  of 
Luxembourg  has  a  more  perfect  organization  for  popu- 
lar education  than  any  country  in  Europe,  and  that, 
too,  without  compulsion.  Only  one  per  cent,  of  the 
people  are  uneducated.  In  Germany  the  Catholic 
provinces  are  fully  equal  to  the  Protestant  districts  in 
this  respect.  In  France  primary  education  is  highly 
developed,  especially  in  the  towns.  Its  success  is 
largely  due  to  t  e  Catholic  teaching  orders  of  men  and 
women.  M.  Maxime  du  Camp,  a  Liberal,  like  M.  de 
Laveleye,  gives  the  first  rank  among  the  primary 
schools  of  Paris  to  those  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity. 
Borne,  the  very  centre  of  clericalism,  Papal  Rome, 
with  a  population  of  158,000,  had,  according  to  Mr. 
Laing,t  in  the  year  1843,  372  primary  schools,  attended 
by  14,099  children,  and  conducted  by  452  teachers. 
Berlin,  in  the  same  year,  with  double  the  population, 
had  only  264  schools.  The  Papal  States  had  seven 
universities,  with  a  population  of  only  two  and  a  half 
millions,  while  the  twenty- six  million  Protestants  of 
Germany,  at  the  present  day,  have  exactly  the  same 

*  Bishop  Spalding,  in  his  second  article  on  M.  de  Laveleye's  pamph- 
let, treats  briefly,  but  with  sufficient  fulness,  the  history  of  Catholic 
popular  education  from  the  ninth  century.  He  also  states  that  at 
present  the  educational  statistics  of  Europe  show  that  the  school  at- 
tendance compared  with  the  population  is  in  Bavaria  as  1  to  7,  Aus- 
tria 1  to  10.5,  Ireland  1  to  16,  Catholic  Switzerland  1  to  16,  and  in  Eng- 
land as  1  to  17. 

t  "Notes  of  a  Traveler,"    London:  1812-48. 


APPENDIX.  259 

number  of  universities — seven.  So  much  for  the 
charge  that  the  Catholic  Church  is  opposed  to,  or 
careless  of,  the  education  of  her  children.  More  than 
ha  f  the  nuns,  whom  M.  de  Laveleye's  Liberal  friends 
would  expel  from  Belgium  if  they  could,  give  their 
whole  lives  without  fee  or  reward  to  the  teaching  of  the 
children  of  the  poor. 

But,  as  M.  de  Haulleville  justly  remarks,  M.  de 
Laveleye  "surpasses  himself"  in  his  last  proposition. 
"It  is  agreed,"  he  says,  "that  the  power  of  nations 
depends  on  their  morality.  Now,  ifc  appears  that 
the  moral  level  is  higher  among  Protestants  than 
amoDg  Catholics."  The  arguments  brought  forward 
in  support  of  this  daring  assertion  are  the  weakest  in 
the  book.  M.  de  Laveieye  points  triumphantly  to  the 
immoral  literature  of  France  and  the  French  drama. 
If  this  literature  were  the  work  of  Catholics,  it  would 
be  a  fair  argument;  but  all  the  world  knows  that 
ifc  is  produced  by  men  and  women  of  his  own  school 
of  political  a1  d  philosophical  thought.  Madame 
Georges  Sand  and  Paul  de  Kock  were  neither  of  them 
Catholics. 

The  Church  condemns  this  pernicious  literature,  and 
does  all  that  she  can  to  oppose  it  and  limit  its  evil  ef- 
fects. But  its  circulation  is  not  confined  to  France. 
Any  London  bookseller  can  give  us  evidence  that  the 
French  novel,  in  the  form  to  which  M.  de  Laveleye  al- 
ludes, enjoys  a  wide  popularity  in  Protestant  England. 
Nor  is  Protestant  Germany  without  reproach.  The 
country  where  "The  Sorrows  of  Werther"  is  still  a 
favorite  story,  has  litte  to  boast  of  in  this  respect;  and 
as  for  America,  there  are  journals  of  high  standing, 
even  in  New  York,  which  simply  trade  upon  public 
vice  in  a  way  that  even  a  Parisian  journal  would  not 
venture  to  attempt.  The  charge  of  fostering  immoral- 
ity is  a  strange  one  to  bring  against  the  Catholic 


260        NOTES  FEOM  "  THE  DUBLIN  REVIEW." 

Church.  We  do  not  say  that  a  man  is  established  in 
virtue  by  the  mere  fact  of  being  a  Catholic.  Bit  we 
do  insist  that  the  Catholic  Cnurch  protects  the  virtue 
of  her  children  by  the  most  rigi  1  precepts,  and  places 
before  them  the  highest  standard  in  the  matter  of 
morality  and  purity.  It  is  the  glory  of  the  Catholic 
Church  to  have  protected  by  the  highest  sanctions  the 
indissoluble  bond  of  marriage;  it  is  the  reproach  of 
the  Bt  formation  that  it  has  re-introduct  d  divorce 
into  Europe.  There  is  no  Catholic  who  does  not  know 
that  many  things  are  grevious  sins,  which  only  too 
many  of  those  outside  the  pale  of  the  Church  look 
upon  as  pardonable  follies.  Then,  as  the  guarantee 
.and  the  perpetual  vindicator  of  this  exalted  standard  of 
morality,  there  is  the  Sacrament  of  Penance,  which 
daily  is  the  means  of  saving  hundreds  from  the  toils 
of  sin.  It  is  only  natural  to  expect  that  all  this  would 
have  the  effect  of  placing  the  Catholic  nations  very 
high  in  the  scale  of  comparative  morality,  and  we  shall 
show  that  this  is  the  case.  Paris  is  not  a  Catholic 
city,  the  cup  of  her  iniquities  is  filled  up  from  the 
whole  worlJ ;  the  vice  of  Paris  is  made  a  reproach  to 
Catholic  France,  which  condemns  and  repudiates  it ; 
bat  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  show  that  Protestant 
Berlin  has  nothing  to  boast  of  in  comparison  with 
Paris,  and  Protestant  London  very  little.  The  most 
immoral  country  in  Europe  is  Sweden,  the  citadel  of 
Lu'heranisrn,  where  conversion  to  Catholicity  is  still 
forbidden  by  penal  laws.  Mr.  Bayard  Taylor's  ac- 
count of  Stockholm  places  that  city  at  once  lowest  in 
the  rank  of  European  capitals. 

But  this  is  a  matter  which  can  be  tested  very  fairly 
by  statistics.  We  shall  pass  over  it  very  briefly,  and 
ODly  give  a  few  of  the  figures  at  our  command.  We 
will  re-trict  our  survey  entirely  to  our  own  islands,  and 
take  the  data  supplied  by  the  Registrar-General's  re- 


APPENDIX.  261 

turns  of  the  proportions  between  legitimate  and  ille- 
gitimate births.  In  England,  in  1873,  the  proportion 
was  five- sixths  illegitimate  in  every  100  registered 
births ;  in  Scotland,  the  most  Protestant  of  the  three 
kingdoms,  it  was  nine  per  cent. ;  in  Catholic  Ireland 
two -sevenths  per  cent.  More  than  this,  when  we  ex- 
amine the  returns  for  a  series  of  years,  we  find  that  the 
highest  percentage  is  always  registered  in  Ulster,  and 
that  the  disproportion  between  the  returns  of  the 
North-east  of  Ireland  and  those  of  the  rest  of  the  coun- 
try is  remarkable.  The  purely  Catholic  districts  of 
the  West  and  South-west,  that  is  to  say,  Connaught 
and  the  greater  part  of  Munster,  stand  best  in  the 
scale.  Take  the  following  table  of  the  percentage  in 
all  Ireland,  and  in  the  North-east,  West,  and  South- 
west, from  1867  to  1871: 

Divisions.      1867.      1868.      1869.     1870.      1871. 
All  Ireland... 3.3          3.1         2.9        2.7         2.7 
North-east...  5. 7          5.5         5.3        5.3         5.2 

West 1.2          1.3         1.3        1.0         1.0 

South-west...  2.0  2.1  1.7  1.7  1.6 
M.  de  Laveleye  compared  the  prosperity  of  Ulster 
with  the  misery  of  Connaught,  and  asked  us  to  infer 
that  Catholicity  was  a  misfortune  to  the  West  of  Ire- 
land. Catholicism  or  Protestantism  may  have  very 
little  to  do  with  the  question  of  wealth,  but  certainly 
they  have  much  bearing  upon  the  question  of  morality. 
It  matters  little  to  a  man  hereafter  whether  he  has  been 
poor  or  rich  here,  but  it  is  of  great  import  to  him  to 
have  been  virtuous  or  vicious.  In  this  point  then, — 
and  it  is  the  most  serious  of  all,  Catholic  Connaught 
stands  far  higher  than  Ulster.  Ulster  has,  perhaps, 
more  wealthy  families,  more  comfortable  houses;  but 
the  cabins  of  Connaught  give  shelter  to  a  purer  race. 
We  see  then,  that  in  the  scale  of  morality,  Scotland 
stands  lowest  of  any  country  in  the  United  Kingdom, 


262         NOTES  FROM  "  THE  DUBLIN  REVIEW." 

England  comes  next,  Ireland  stands  highest;  andwlirn 
we  take  separate  districts  of  Ireland,  it  is  precisely  the 
most  Protestant  dist act  that  stands  lowest,  the  most 
Catholic  districts  that  stand  highest.*  It  is  hard  for 
any  one  to  resist  the  con  lusion  that  the  religion  of  the 
people  is  the  cause  of  this.  Assuredly  Digitus  Dei 
hi  o  est. 

We  have  seen  already  how  weak  is  M.  de  Laveleye's 
line  of  argument,  how  uncertain  are  his  premises,  how 
fallacious  is  his  reasoning.  We  do  not  charge  him 
with  wilfully  deceiving  and  misleading  his  readers  ; 
but  we  do  charge  him  with  reckless  carelessness,  thor- 
oughly unscientific  method,  and  utter  incompetency 
for  the  task  he  has  undertaken.  His  book  is  not  a 
"  study  of  social  economy."  It  is  a  prejudiced  attack 
upon  Catholicism,  which  does  not  bear  a  few  minutes* 
serious  examination.  It  has  not  even  the  merit  of 

*  Bit-hop  Spalding  has  collected  the  fo. lowing  interestirg  statistics 
of  illegitimacy  in  various  countries,  which  confirm  the  evidence  de- 
rived from  our  own  Registrar-General's  returns : 

Percentage  of  illegitimate  births  : — 
Catholic  Countries.  Protestant  Countries. 

Sardinia  (1828-37) 2.1  Norway  (1855) 9.3 

Spain  (1859) 5.6  Sweden  (1855) 9.5 

Tuscany 5.  Protestant  Prussia  (ib58) 9.3 

Catholic  portion  of  Prussia ...  6.1  Hanover  (1855) 9.9 

France  (1858) 7.8  Denma:k  (1855) 11.5 

Iceland  (1838-47) . .  14. 

Saxony  (1858) 16. 

Wurteinburg  (1838) 16.1 

In  Catholic  France,  as  in  Catholic  Ireland,  the  most  Catholic  districts 
stand  best  in  the  statistics.  T-'ius,  while  the  ra'.e  for  all  France  is  7.8 
the  rate  for  the  rural  districts  is  4.2;  for  La  Vendee,  2.2;  for  Brittany, 
1.2.  In  England  the  rural  districts  stand  lowest  in  the  scale  of  mo- 
rality. Thp  same  rule  holds  good  in  Germany,  the  Catholic  distiicts 
are  the  purest.  The  statistics  stand : — 

Catholic.    {SSESf  ft       Protestant.    {££££*$*,}  10.  tc  12 
The  evidence  is  irresistible,  the  rule  holds  good  throughout. 


APPENDIX.  263 

ordinary  plausibility.  We  have  shown  that  in  the 
various  points  of  material  wealth  and  power,  ability  to 
colonize,  education,  and  morality,  the  Catholic  na<  ions 
have  nothing  to  fear  from  a  comparison  with  Protestant 
peoples.  That  in  the  last  particular,  and  the  most 
important  of  all,  they  stand  highest  in  the  scale.  And 
on  all  these  points  we  have  adduced  only  a  portion  of 
the  evidence  at  our  command.  The  field  of  inquiry  is 
such  a  wide  one  that  a  volume  would  be  required  for 
its  full  treatment. 

We  must  say  in  conclusion,  that  we  agree  with  M. 
de  Haulleville  in  anticipating  a  brilliant  future  for 
Catholicity,  and  for  the  Catholic  nations.  The  Catho- 
lic revival  in  France  and  Italy ;  the  conquests  achieved 
by  Catholicity  in  England,  Germany,  and  America ; 
the  glorious  w<  >rk  which  is  being  done  by  Catholic 
missionaries  alike  in  the  East  and  the  West ;  the  won- 
drous unity,  not  only  of  doctrine  but  of  feeling  and 
sentiment,  that  pervades  the  whole  Church  ;  the  devo- 
tion alike  of  pastors  and  peoples  to  Rome — all  are 
unmistakable  auguries  for  future  good.  Learning  and 
literature  flourish  now  as  they  have  ever  flourished, 
under  the  fostering  care  of  the  Church  ;  Protestantism 
is  everywhere  dead  or  dying.  Already  its  influence  is 
gone.  Men  will  soon  be  either  infidels  or  Catholics. 
The  Church  has  conquered  Protestantism  as  she  con- 
quered Arianism  ;  she  will  conquer  infidelity  and  Lib- 
eralism as  she  conquered  Paganism  and  Eoman  Caesar- 
ism.  She  is  the  true  civilizing  power  of  the  present, 
as  she  was  in  the  past.  Even  as  we  write,  wnnc» 
Liberal  philanthropists  are  talking  of  opening  up 
Africa,  the  sons  of  the  Church  are  not  talking  but 
working,  and  quietly  and  unostentatiously  preparing 
the  way  for  a  systematic  attempt  to  win  the  dark  land 
of  Central  Africa  to  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ.  With 
all  this  before  our  eyes,  we  cannot  share  in  any  gloomy 


2C4  PLANTATION    OF    ULSTER. 

forebodings  for  the  future  of  Catholic  peoples.  We 
are  approaching  the  close  of  one  century,  the  opening 
of  another.  The  nineteenth  century  has  been  an  age 
of  Liberalism,  for  which  the  eighteenth  had  prepared 
the  way.  Is  there  any  reason  why  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury should  not  be  an  age  of  Catholicity,  the  ultimate 
result  of  the  Pontificate  of  Pius  IX.?  We  do  not 
think  there  is.  On  the  contrary,  we  believe  that  there 
is  every  reason  why  we  should  hope  and  pray  for  such 
an  event.  Even  humanly  speaking,  it  is  more  than 
possible,  and  he  would  be  a  daring  man  who  would 
say  that  the  hope  is  a  baseless  one. 


NOTES  BY  HENKY  BELLINGHAM,   M.   A. 

The  following  notes  are  extracted  from  an  English 
essay  based  on  Baron  de  Haulleville's  work,  by  Mr. 
Henry  Bellingham,  M.  A.,  Barrister  at  Law  : 

PLANTATION    OF  ULSTER. 
[Note  to  Chapter  II.,  page  23.] 

The  natives  were  forcibly  taken  from  their  homes, 
deprived  of  their  wealth,  and  treated  with  every  indig- 
nity. The  impious  soldiery  pursued  the  defenceless 
priests  by  day  and  night  throughout  the  province, 
whilst  they  entered  private  houses  at  discretion  and 
executed  whom  they  pleased.  The  Bishop  of  Down 
and  Connor  was  executed  in  Dublin  by  an  English 
culprit  under  sentence  of  death,  the  only  person  who 
could  be  found  to  do  the  bloody  deed. 

The  men  whose  lives  the  Irish  people  have  always 
held  more  sacred  than  those  of  their  ancient  chiefs, 


APPENDIX.  265 

were  daily  slaughtered  before  their  eyes,  and  cruelties 
were  perpetrated  that  would  have  excited  the  indigna- 
tion of  the  heathen. 

ENGLAND'S  CLAIMS  IN  AMERICA. 

INote  to  Chapter  IV.,  page  123.] 

England  has  frequently  boasted  that  she  is  the 
mother-land  of  America,  anl  yet  she  has  little  claim 
even  to  this.  The  majority  of  English-speaking  emi- 
grants that  have  flocked  there  in  such  large  numbers 
during  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years  are  Irish  ;  but  to 
go  farther  back  in  history,  the  first  European  who 
went  to  America  was  Christopher  Columbus,  an  Italian; 
the  second,  Americus  Vespucci,  a  Portuguese ;  the 
third,  Sebastian  Cabot,  a  Spaniard ;  and  yet  these 
persons  are  reckoned  the  founders  of  America. 

Was  it  not  the  Dutch  who  settled  New  York,  and 
the  Swedes  Jersey  ?  Was  it  not  the  Danes  who  set- 
tled Delaware,  and  the  Huguenots  South  Carolina,  the 
Spanish  Florida,  and  the  French  Louisiana  ?  The 
very  capital  in  which  Congress  is  held  was  presented 
by  Carroll,  an  Irishman,  and  by  careful  examination 
it  will  be  seen  that  from  the  lakes  to  the  gulf,  and  from 
ocean  to  ocean,  there  is  not  ten  per  cent,  of  English 
blood  in  the  veins  of  the  people. 

THE  COLONY    OP  PIOPOLIS. 

[Note  to  Chapter  IV.,  page  124.] 

We  must  not  omit  one  instance  of  Catholic  coloniza- 
tion that  has  occurred  within  the  last  few  years.  After 
the  dispersion  of  the  Papal  Zouaves  consequent  on  the 
seizure  of  Home  by  the  Italian  Government,  a  portion 
of  that  body  who  were  from  Canada  obtained  lands  in 
the  forests  of  their  native  country,  cleared  the  ground, 
and  erected  a  small  village  which  is  rapidly  rising  into 
a  town  and  bringing  the  adjacent  territory  into  cultiva- 
tion. This  small  colony  has  already  prospered  beyond 


266   PROTESTANT  PERSECUTION  OF  CATHOLICS. 

all  expectation,  and  is  ruled  in  the  spirit  of  true  Chris- 
tianity, such  as  was  witnessed  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Church.  The  village  bears  the  name  of  Piopolis,  in 
honor  of  the  venerated  Pontiff  Pius  IX. 

PROTESTANT  PERSECUTION   OF   CATHOLICS. 
[Note  to  Chapter  F.,  page  133.] 

Persecution  has  not  only  been  more  generally  prac- 
tised by  Protestants  than  by  Catholics,  but  it  has  been 
more  warmly  defended  and  supported  by  the  former 
than  by  the  latter. 

Bergier  defies  Protestants  to  mention  a  single  town 
in  which  tlieir  predecessors,  on  becoming  masters  of 
it,  tolerated  a  single  Catholic. 

Bousseau,  who  was  educated  a  Protestant,  says,*  that 
"  the  Reformation  was  intolerant  from  its  cradle,  and 
its  authors  universally  persecutors." 

Bayle,  a  celebrated  Calvinist,  has  published  much 
the  same  thing. 

The  Huguenot  minister,  Jurieu,  acknowledges  the 
fact  "that  Geneva,  Switzerland,  the  various  principal- 
ities of  Germany,  England,  Scotland,  Sweden,  and 
Denmark  had  all  employed  the  power  of  the  State  to 
abolish  Popery,  and  establish  the  Kef ormation.  "f 

The  moderate  Melancthon  wrote  a  book  J  in  defence 
of  religious  persecution.  Calvin  was  ils  great  cham- 
pion, and  Beza,  who  succeeded  him,  wrote  a  folio  work 
in  defence  of  it.§ 

John  Knox  advocates  it  in  all  his  writings.  |] 

Edwin  Sandys,  Bishop  of  London,  published  a  book 
in  vindication  of  it.  1T 

*  '-Lettres  de  la  Mont." 

f  "  Tab.  Lett.,"  quoted  by  Bossuet,  avertiss.,  p.  625, 

\"De  ffceretecis  puniendis  a  civili  magi  strain,  etc.,  a  Theod. 
Beza." 

§  "De  Bceret.  puniend,,"  Beza. 

||  See  Milner's  **  End  of  Keligious  Controversy,"  p.  439. 

f  Ger.  Brandt,  "  Hist.  Beform,"  abridg.,  vol.  i,  p.  234, 


APPENDIX.  267 

James  I.  was  repeatedly  urged  by  Parliament  to  en- 
force th  » laws  against  Catholics  with  great  rigor,  and 
Archbishop  Abbot  warned  Lim  against  the  sin  of  tol- 
eration. (See  Hush  worth's  collection,  vol.  i.  p.  144.) 

Archbishop  Usher  and  eleven  Irish  bishops  present- 
ed an  address  to  Charles  I.  against  toleration,  in  which 
they  declared  that  to  give  toleration  to  Papists  was  a 
grievous  sn.  (See  Leland's  "Hist,  of  Ireland,"  vol. 
ii.  p.  482,  ad  Neal's  "  Hist.,"  vol.  ii.  p.  469.) 

The  Presbyterian  divines  assembled  at  Sion  College 
condemned  as  an  error  "  the  doctrine  of  tolerat  on," 
under  the  abused  term,  as  they  expressed  it,  "of  liberty 
of  conscience.  * 

James  II.  was  deposed  by  the  English  nation  be- 
cause he  wished  that  all  his  su  jects  should  enjoy  the 
same  privileges;  and  to  the  present  day,  the  mere  fact 
of  a  man's  being  a  Catholic  is  sufficient  to  make  his 
return  to  Par.iament  in  any  English  country  almost  an 
impossibility. 

Dr.  Milner  says,  with  great  justice,  that  when 
Catholic  States  and  princes  persecuted  Protestants, 
it  was  done  in  favor  of  an  ancient  religion,  which  had 
been  established  in  their  country  perhaps  a  thousand 
or  fifteen  hundred  years,  and  which  had  long  preserved 
the  peace,  order,  and  morality  of  their  respective  sub- 
jects, and  when  at  the  same  time  they  clearly  saw  that 
any  attempt  to  alter  this  religion  would  unavoidably 
produce  disorders  and  sanguinary  contests  among  them. 

Protestants,  on  the  contrary,  everywhere  persecuted 
on  behalf  of  new  systems,  in  opposition  to  the  estab- 
lished laws  of  the  Church  and  of  the  respective  States. 

Nothing  was  ever  more  unfounded  than  the  notion 
that  Protestantism  is  favorable  to  freedom  of  con- 
science, or  that  Protestants  were  not  persecutors. 

Protestants  not  only  persecuted  Catholics,  but  they 

*  "  History  of  Churches  of  England  and  Scotland,"  vol.  iii. 


268    PROTESTANT  PERSECUTION  OF  CATHOLICS. 

went  so  far  as   to  persecute  each  other  to  the  death. 

In  Scotland  the  Beformation  may  be  said  to  have 
begun  by  the  assassination  of  Cardinal  Beaton,  to 
which  Knox  was  a  party,  and  to  which  Fox,  in  his 
"Acts  and  Monuments,'*  says  the  murderers  w  re  in- 
stigated by  the  Spirit  of  God.  "  With  such  indecent 
haste,"  says  Eobertson,  "did  the  very  persons  who 
had  just  escaped  ecclesiastical  tyranny  proceed  to  imi- 
tate the  example."  (Robertson's  '  History  of  Scot- 
land.") See  also  the  answer  of  the  Presbytery  to  the 
King  and  Council  in  1596,  concerning  tie  Catholic 
Earls  of  Huntley,  Erroll,  etc. ,  which  declared  that  the 
civil  power  could  not  spare  them,  as  they  were  guilty 
of  idolatry,  a  crime  punishable  by  death. 

In  France  it  is  well  known  that  wherever  the  Hugue- 
nots carried  their  victorious  arms  against  their  sove- 
reign, they  prohibited  the  exercise  of  the  Catholic 
religion,  slaughtered  the  priests,  and  burnt  the 
churches  and  convents  (Maimbourg,  "  Hist.  Calvin- 
ism "). 

One  of  their  own  writers,  Nicholas  Froumanteau, 
confesses  that  in  the  single  province  of  Dauphiny 
they  killed  256  priests  and  112  monks  ("  Liv.  de 
France  "). 

In  these  scenes  the  famous  Baron  des  Adrets  sig- 
nalized his  notions  of  Protestant  civilization  by  forcing 
the  Catholic  prisoners  to  jump  from  the  towers  upon 
the  pikes  of  his  soldiers,  and  by  compelling  his  own 
children  to  wash  their  hands  in  the  blood  of  the  Cath- 
olics. 

In  the  Low  Countries  it  was  an  ordinary  thing  for 
the  Calvinists  to  assault  the  clergy  in  the  discharge 
of  their  fu  ctions.  Wherever  Vandermeck  and  Sonoi, 
both  of  them  lieutenants  of  the  Prince  of  Orange, 
carried  their  arms,  tiiey  uniformly  put  to  death  in 
cold  blood  all  the  priests  and  religious  they  could 


APPENDIX.  269 

lay  hands  on,  as  at  Dort,  Middlebourg,  Delft,  etc., 
("  Hist.  Ref.  des  Pays  Has,"  by  the  Protestant  minis- 
ter, De  Brandt). 

Feller,  a  celebrated  biographer,  states  that  Vander- 
meck  slaughtered  more  unoffending  Catholics  in  the 
year  1752  than  Alva  executed  Protestants  during  his 
whole  government. 

Monsieur  Keroux,  a  Protestant  writer  in  "ISAbrege 
de  V  Histoire  de  la  Hollande,"  draws  a  frightful  pic- 
ture of  the  barbarities  committed  against  the  Catholic 
peasants  of  North  Holland.  Amongst  the  more  illus- 
trious foreign  Protestants  who  suffered  death  by  the 
violence  of  other  Protestants  may  be  mentioned  the 
names  of  Servetus,  Gentilis,  Felix  Mans,  Rotman,  and 
Barnevelt. 

In  England  during  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  many 
Protestant  dissenters  were  condemned  and  burnt.  {See 
Stow's  "Annals.")  During  the  reign  of  Elizabeth 
large  numbers  of  persons  suffered  torture  and  death 
for  their  religious  opinions.  Full  descriptions  of  those 
who  were  thus  punished  may  be  found  in  the  works  of 
Stow,  Brandt,  Collier,  Neal,  etc. 

Under  James  I. ,  Legat  and  Wrightman  were  pub- 
licly executed  for  Arianism,  and  under  Charles  I.  the 
dissenters  complained  loudly  of  their  sufferings,  and 
particularly  that  four  of  their  number — Leigh  ton, 
Burton,  Prynne,  and  Bastwick — were  cropped  of  their 
ears  and  set  in  the  pillory.  (See  Limborch's  *  'History 
of  Inquisition,"  Neal  etc.) 

When  the  dissenters  got  the  upper  hand  they  con- 
tinued to  put  Catholics  to  death  and  treated  the  Epis- 
copalians with  great  severity,  at  the  same  time  appoint- 
ing days  of  humiliation  and  fasting  to  beg  God's  par- 
don for  not  being  more  intolerant.  (See  Neal's  "  His- 
tory of  Puritans,"  "  History  of  Churches  of  England 
.and  Scotland.") 


270    PROTESTANT  PERSECUTION  OF  CATHOLICS. 

The  editor  of  De  Laurie's  "  Plea  for  Nonconformists" 
says  that  this  writer  was  one  of  8, 000  Protestant  dis- 
senters who  perished  in  prison  in  the  single  reign  of 
Char'es  II.,  merely  for  dissenting  from  the  Church  of 
iingland  as  by  law  established.  For  the  capital  pun- 
ishment and  other  sufferings  of  the  Quakers  our  read- 
ers may  r;  fer  to  Penn's  "  Life  of  George  Fox." 

Protestant  countries  can  lay  no  claim  to  be  exempt 
from  anarchy  and  revolution. 

To  begin  with,  neither  Switzerland  nor  the  United 
States  of  America  can  be  considered  harbors  of  refuge 
against  them ;  the  latter,  having  but  lately  emerged 
from  the  effects  of  a  terrible  civil  war  which  may  break 
out  again  at  any  moment,  has  suffered  much  from  dis- 
content amongst  the  masses,  and  was,  but  a  short  time 
ago,  a  prey  to  the  horrors  of  bloodshed,  owing  to  a 
general  strike  of  railway  laborers  throughout  the  whole 
country. 

The  former  is  full  of  the  elements  of  anarchy  and 
discontent.  The  different  Swiss  cantons  are  perpet- 
ually at  variance,  although  the  common  object  of  self- 
defence  is  able  to  silence  many  differences. 

Since  the  Reformation,  Switzerland  has  had  its  full 
share  of  insurrection  and  revolution,  and  at  the  present 
moment  offers  an  example  of  tyrannical  government 
and  a  discontented  population. 

Witness  the  arbitrary  expulsion  of  Monsignor  Mer- 
millod,  Yicar  Apostolic  of  Geneva  and  Bishop  of  He- 
bron, in  the  year  1872;  the  forcible  ejection  of  Catholic 
priests  and  people  from  their  lawful  churches,  and  the 
intrusion  of  S  ate-appointed  apostate  clergy  in  the 
Jura,*  in  spite  of  repeated  petitions  against  such  pro- 

*  M.  Loyson,  an  apostace  French  Carmelite,  was  installed  by 
the  civil  authorities  of  Geneva  as  curd  of  the  parish,  in  defi- 
ance of  the  wishes  of  the  people,  who  at  once  withdrew  from 
bis  ministrations.  The  sequel  is  amusing.  M.  Loyson  became 


APPENDIX.  271 

ceedings.  In  Geneva  a  Government  clique  of  Pro- 
testants, Jews,  and  atheists,  have  seized  on  all  the 
ecclesiastical  property,  even  that  which  had  been 
originally  given  by  private  individuals,*  and  in  Lau- 
sanne they  have  made  several  attempts  to  upset  the 
whole  machinery  of  ecclesiastical  legislation. 

Till  near  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  Swit- 
zerland was  distracted  by  dissensions,  and  in  the  year 
1703  the  whole  of  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  cantons 
were  openly  arrayed  against  each  other.  From  this 
period  to  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  internal 
discord  paved  the  way  for  external  aggression,  and 
rendered  it  an  easy  prey  to  the  great  French  Bepublic. 

The  Dutch  have  had  many  more  periods  of  anarchy 
than  their  Belgian  neighbors  of  the  same  race. 

For  the  space  of  two  centuries  Holland  was  torn 
asunder  by  a  spirit  of  faction,  and  was  only  saved  from 
the  absolutism  of  the  House  of  Orange  by  the  partial 
want  of  success  of  the  Calvinists. 

Had  these  latter  been  altogether  triumphant,  Hol- 
land would  have  shared  the  political  fate  of  Sweden, 
Denmark,  and  Prussia. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
troubled  state  of  the  country  induced  the  Dutch  to 
seek  foreign  intervention,  and  their  land  was  suc- 
cessively occupied  by  the  Prussians,  the  French,  and 
the  English.  In  1787  the  Prussians  were  masters  of 

disgusted  with  the  situation,  his  followers  being  composed  of 
atheists  and  freethinkers,  and  threw  up  the  post,  declaring  that 
he  did  so  because  those  who  had  appointed  him  were  neither 
liberals  nor  Catholics. 

*  The  church  of  Notre  Dame,  built  by  the  contributions  of 
Catholics  throughout  the  world,  has  been  forcibly  taken  posses- 
sion of  by  the  Government,  and  handed  over  to  the  sect  of 
Old  Catholics.  These  latter  are  so  few  in  number  and  so  irreli- 
gious in  practice  that  they  make  but  little  use  of  it,  and  it  was 
recently  lent  for  a  musical  entertainment. 


272    PBOTESTANT  PERSECUTION  OF  CATHOLICS. 

Amsterdam,   and  openly  espoused  the  cause  of  the 
House  of  Orange. 

In  1785  a  fellow-soldier  of  Bernadotte  reduced  the 
•whole  kingdom  of  Holland  to  the  state  of  a  department 
of  the  great  French  Republic. 

Perpetual  quarrels  between  Arminians  and  Oalvinists 
headed  by  Arminius  and  Gomarus  distracted  the  coun- 
try. 

The  Protestants  of  North  Germany  until  the  year 
1848  were  (like  the  Assyrians  or  Babylonians)  in  a 
state  of  comparative  tranquility  because  they  were 
completely  crushed  under  the  heel  of  a  civil  despot- 
ism, the  most  consummate  in  the  record  of  modern 
history. 

The  Prussian  historian  Leo  declares  that  the  natural 
result  of  the  Reformation  was  the  increase  of  power 
amongst  the  sovereigns  and  various  rulers  throughout 
Germany,  and  the  destruction  of  the  liberty  of  the 
lesser  nobles  and  peasants. 

The  Thirty  Years'  War  which  devastated  Germany 
was  the  distinct  legacy  of  the  Eeformation,  and  the 
war  of  seven  years  arose  from  the  designs  and  in- 
trigues of  the  Prussian  sovereigns.  Germans  against 
Germans,  monarch  against  monarch,  in  a  scramble  for 
territory,  and  the  people  indifferent  and  with  no  in- 
terest at  issue,  was  the  spectacle  presentedjui  Northern 
Germany. 

The  sovereigns  made  conquests  according  to  the 
number  of  their  highly- disciplined  troops, 

War  was  carried  on  by  them  just  as  players  at  chess 
or  draughts  carry  on  warfare  and  calculate  the  powers 
and  effect  of  each  piece.  The  military  system  of  the 
German  governments  engendered  a  spirit  of  inter- 
ference not  only  with  the  laboring  class  of  the  com- 
munity, but  with  all  business  and  employment. 

At  the  present  moment  Prussia  is  in  a  state  of  revo- 


APPENDIX.  273 

lutionary  ferment,  of  which  no  one  can  foresee  the 
result.  Up  to  the  year  1860  Socialism  hardly  existed 
in  Germany;  since  then  it  Has  made  rapid  strides.  In 
the  year  1869  it  had  six  journals  that  represented  its 
principles ;  now  it  has  fifty,  in  addition  to  almanacs, 
pamphlets  and  flying  sheets,  which  are  circulated  by 
hundreds  of  thousands.  Herr  Most,  a  celebrated  So- 
cialist leader,  declared  not  long  ago  at  a  public  meet- 
ing* that  church  goers  had  dwindled  into  a  small 
minority,  and  that  Christianity  was  dying  out. 

The  daily  papers  of  the  15th  and  16th  of  January, 
1877,  were  loud  in  their  disapproval  of  the  succe  ses 
of  the  Socialists  and  Democrats  at  the  elections  that 
had  then  taken  place,  and  expressed  their  dread  at  the 
future  that  was  before  them. 

From  the  year  1637  to  the  year  1720  Denmark  was  a 
prey  to  perpetual  war,  and  from  that  time  has  been 
ground  down  under  a  gross  form  of  despotism. 

The  revolution  of  1660  destroyed  the  despotism  of 
the  nobles,  but  Hi  tie  improvement  took  place  with  re- 
gard to  the  great  mass  of  the  population. 

In  the  year  1687  the  wretched  condition  of  the 
Danish  peasantry  was  so  alarming  that  a  fifth  part  of 
the  lands  formerly  cultivated  by  them  was  allowed  to 
remain  fallow. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  whole  villages  disappeared 
in  the  abyss  of  misery,  caused  by  the  despotic  char- 
acter of  the  government. 

Sweden  cannot  be  cited  as  an  example  of  the  peace 
enjoyed  by  nations  that  have  accepted  the  Befor- 
mation.  For  the  last  three  hundred  years  she  has  been 
a  prey  to  perpetual  troubles  and  revolutions.  The  an- 
archy that  Europe  had  witnessed  in  modern  Spain  is 
as  nothing  in  comparison  to  the  revolutions  in  Sweden 
which  disposed  of  two  kings,  Sigismund  and  Gustavus 

*  vSee  Times,  March  22nd,  1878. 


274    PBOTESTANT  PERSECUTION  OF  CATHOLICS. 

IV.,  and  killed  three  more— Eric  XIV.,  Charles  XIL, 
and  Gustavus  III. 

The  Swedish  people  carried  the  love  of  sedition  to 
the  f  xt  nfc  of  repudiating  their  own  national  dynasty, 
by  handing  over  their  country  to  a  soldier  of  fortune, 
who  rose  from  the  ranks  of  the  great  French  Revolu- 
tion. 

The  Reformation  benefited  nobody  except  the  no- 
bility, who  practically  made  royalty  subservient  to 
them. 

In  the  year  1680  the  States  declared  that  they  re- 
garded it  as  an  "  absurdity  "  that  the  king  should  be 
obliged  by  the  statutes  to  give  them  a  hearing  before 
finally  deciding  on  questions  of  government.  In  1693 
the  sovereign  power  was  declared  to  be  absolute,  and 
Charles  XII.  caused  the  Diet  to  be  told  that  he  would 
send  his  boots  to  preside  over  its  sittings. 

After  the  murder  of  that  amiable  freethinker,  Swed- 
ish liberty,  i.  e.  the  dominion  of  the  nobles,  was  re- 
established, and  a  series  of  revolutions  followed  in 
rapid  succession,  concluding  with  the  murder  of  Gus- 
tavus. From  that  period  Sweden  became  a  mass  of 
intrigue  and  political  corruption.  Finland  was  seize  J 
upon  by  Russia,  and  the  kingdom  of  Sweden  found 
no  political  rest  save  in  the  arms  of  a  French  gen- 
eral who  deemed  that  a  crown  was  well  worth  an  abju- 
ration. 

We  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  blessings  which  re- 
sulted to  England  from  the  liberty  of  the  Reformation, 
but  what  the  Reformation  really  did  was  to  make  Eng- 
land the  scene  of  constantly  recurring  insurrections 
and  civil  wars  from  the  "  Pilgrimage  of  Graca  "  till  the 
rebellion  of  1745,  the  risings  (always  justifiable,  except 
it  be  admitted  that  Protestant  governments  are  never 
to  be  resisted)  being  always  put  down  with  the  most 
ruthless  ferocity. 


APPENDIX.  275 

The  Keformation  cost  the  Church  of  England  at  least 
half  the  population  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  the 
country  her  most  treasured  possession,  the  United 
States  of  America.  As  a  reformation  of  manners  it 
proved  the  most  complete  failure.  It  was  an  outbreak 
of  lawlessness  in  the  first  instance,  and  cruelty  and 
tyranny  in  its  latter  stages. 

Mr.  Froude  declares  that  five  or  six  times  as  much 
blood  was  shed  by  Queen  Elizabeth  as  by  her  sister 
Queen  Mary,  without  so  much  provocation,  as  there 
was  no  insurrection  against  her  as  in  the  case  of 
Queen  Mary,  and  yet  one  is  held  out  to  the  public  as 
"Bloody  Mary,  and  the  other  as  "  Good  Queen  Bess." 

From  Hallam's  "  Constitutional  History,"  we  quote 
the  following  passage: — 

The  Church  of  England,  for  more  than  150  years 
after  the  Reformation,  continued  to  be  the  servile 
handmaid  of  monarchy,  and  the  steady  enemy  of  pub- 
lic liberty.  The  divine  right  of  kings,  and  the  duty  of 
passively  obeying  them  and  all  their  commands,  were 
her  favorite  tenets.  She  held  them  firmly  through 
times  of  oppression,  persecution,  and  licentiousness; 
while  law  was  trampled  down,  while  judgment  was 
perverted,  while  the  people  were  eaten  as  though  they 
were  bread.  Once  and  but  once,  for  a  moment  and 
but  for  a  moment,  when  her  own  dignity  and  property 
were  touched,  she  forgot  to  practise  the  submission 
which  she  had  taught."  * 

Again: — 

By  no  artifice  of  ingenuity  can  the  stigma  of  perse- 
cution, the  worst  blemish  of  the  English  Church  be 
effaced  or  patched  over.  When  Elizabeth  put  Ballard 
and  Babington  to  death,  she  was  not  persecuting,  nor 
should  we  have  accused  her  Government  of  persecu- 
tion for  passing  any  law,  however  severe,  against  overt 
acts  of  sediiion.  But  to  argue  that  because  a  man  is  a 
Catholic,  he  must  think  it  right  to  murder  a  heretical 

*  Macaulay's  "  Essays,"  p.  64. 


276   PROTESTANT  PERSECUTION  OF  CATHOLICS. 

sovereign,  and  that  because  he  thinks  it  right,  he  will 
attempt  to  do  it,  and  then  to  found  on  this  conclusion 
a  law  for  punishing  him  as  if  he  had  done  it,  is  plain 
persecution,  t 

Mr.  Lecky  writes  as  follows: — J 

It  would  be  scarcely  possible  to  conceive  a  more 
infamous  system  of  legal  tyranny  than  that  which  in 
the  eighteenth  century  crushed  every  class  and  almost 
every  interest  in  Ireland.  The  Parliament  had  been 
deprived  of  every  vestige  of  independence.  The  Irish 
judges  might  at  any  time  be  removed. 

Manufacturing  and  commercial  industry  had  been 
deliberately  crushed  for  the  benefit  of  English  manu- 
facturers, and  the  country  was  reduced  to  such  a  state 
of  poverty  that  the  Government  was  compelled  to  bor- 
row £20,000  from  a  private  individual  to  pay  its  troops. 

At  the  same  time  a  gigantic  and  ever-increasing 
pension-list  was  drawn  up  from  the  scanty  resources  of 
the  nation,  and  was  expended  partly  in  corrupting  its 
representatives  and  partly  in  rewarding  foreigners. 
The  mistresses  of  George  I. ,  the  Queen  Dowager  of 
Prussia,  Bister  of  George  II. ,  and  the  Sardinian  am- 
bassador who  negotiated  the  Peace  of  Paris,  were  all 
on  the  pension-lists. 

The  Catholics,  excluded  from  almost  every  possibil- 
ity of  eminence,  deprived  of  their  natural  leaders,  and 
consigned  by  the  legislature  to  utter  ignorance,  soon 
sank  into  the  condition  of  broken  and  dispirited  helots. 

For  the  greater  part  of  a  century  the  main  object  of 
the  legislature  was  to  extirpate  a  religion  by  the  en- 
couragement of  some  of  the  worst,  and  the  punishment 
of  some  of  the  best  qualities  of  our  nature. 

Its  rewards  were  reserved  for  the  informer,  for  the 
hypocrite,  for  the  undutiful  son,  or  for  the  faithless 
wife.  Its  penalties  were  directed  against  religious 
constancy  and  the  honest  discharge  of  ecclesiastical 
duty. 

It  is  impossible  for  any  Irish  Protestant  whose  mind 

f  Ibid.,  p.  59. 

|  See  "Leaders  of  Public  Opinion  in  Ireland,"  by  Lecky,  pp. 
125,127.  Longmans  and  Green,  1871.  _, 


APPENDIX.  277 

is  not  wholly  perverted  by  religious  bigotry,  to  look 
back  without  shame  and  indignation  to  the  penal  code. 
The  an  Dais  of  persecution  contain  many  more  sanguin- 
ary pages.  They  contain  no  instance  of  a  series  of 
laws  more  deliberately  and  ingeniously  framed  to  de- 
base their  victims,  to  bribe  them  in  every  stage  of 
their  life  to  abandon  their  convictions,  and  to  sow  dis- 
seasion  and  distrust  within  the  family  circle. 
^  That  the  Irish  Parliament  in  tfle  last  years  of  Wil- 
liam, and  in  the  reigns  of  his  two  successors,  was  one 
of  the  most  persecuting  legislative  assemblies  that  ever 
sat,  cannot  reasonably  be  questioned. 

The  code  of  laws  inaugurated  in  the  reign  of  William 
in.  is  described  by  Burke  as  a  code  well  digested  and 
well  disposed  in  all  its  parts,  a  machine  of  wise  and 
elaborate  contrivance,  and  as  well  fitted  for  the  op- 
pression, impoverishment,  and  degradation  of  a  people, 
and  the  debasement  in  them  of  human  nature  itself,  as 
ever  proceeded  from  the  perverted  ingenuity  of  man. 

It  was  framed  by  a  small  minority  of  the  nation  for 
the  oppression  of  the  majority,  who  remained  faithful 
to  the  religion  of  their  fathers.  It  was  framed  by  men 
who  boasted  that  their  cretd  rested  upon  private  judg- 
ment, and  whose  descendants  are  never  weary  of  de- 
claiming upon  the  intolerance  of  Popery,  and  was  in 
all  its  parts  so  strictly  a  religious  persecution  that  any 
Catholic  might  be  exempted  from  its  operation  by  sim- 
ply forsaking  his  religion. 

From  Hallam's  "Constitutional  History"  (third  edi- 
tion, vol.  i.  p.  130)  we  quote  the  following  passage: — . 

Tolerance  in  religion,  it  is  well  known,  so  unanim- 
ously admitted  at  least  verbally  in  the  present  century, 
was  seldom  considered  practicable,  much  less  a  matter 
of  right,  during  a  period  of  the  Eeformation. 

And  again : — 

It  appears  that  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century 
the  Irish  or  Anglo-Irish  Catholics  could  hardly  possess 
above  one-sixth  or  one -seventh  of  the  kingdom.  They 
were  still  formidable  from  their  numbers  and  their  suf- 
ferings, and  the  victorious  party  saw  no  security  but 
>^  a  system  of  oppression,  contained  in  a  series  of  laws 


278        PBOTESTANT  PEESECUTION  OF  CATHOLICS. 

during  the  reigns  of  William  and  Anne,  which  have 
scarcely  a  parallel  in  European  history. 

No  Papist  was  allowed  to  keep  a  school,  or  teach  in 
any  private  houses,  except  tbe  children  of  the  family, 
and  no  Papist  could  be  a  guardian  to  any  child,  &c. , 
&c.,  &c. 

To  have  exterminated  the  Catholics  by  the  sword,  or 
expelled  them  like  the -Moriscoes  of  Spain,  would  have 
been  little  more  repugnant  to  justice  and  humanity, 
but  incomparably  more  politic.* 

From  Prendergast's  "  Cromwellian  Settlement"  (p. 
16)  we  quote  the  following  : — 

If  a  Protestant  married  an  Irishwoman,  and  did  not 
conform  to  the  English  religion  within  one  year  of  the 
marriage,  he  sank  to  the  helot-like  condition  of  his 
wife's  people,  and  was  deprived  of  all  rights,  he  be- 
came a  constructive  Papist,  and  was  regarded  as  worse 
than  a  born  one. 

Grattan,  in  one  of  his  celebrated  speeches,  said  : — 

Civil  and  religious  liberty  depends  upon  political 
power  ;  the  community  that  has  no  share  directly  or 
indirectly  in  political  power  has  no  security  for  its  po- 
litical liberty. 

Mr.  Freeman,  in  his  work  entitled  "  Growth  of  the 
English  Constitution, "f  writes  as  follows: 

The  old  paths  have  in  England  ever  been  the  paths 
of  progress;  the  ancient  custom  has  ever  been  to  shrink 
from  mere  change  for  the  sake  of  change,  but  fearlessly 
to  change  whenever  change  was  needed.  And  many  of 
the  best  changes  of  later  times,  many  of  the  most 
wholesome  improvements  in  our  law  and  constitution, 
have  been  only  the  casting  aside  of  innovations  which 
crept  in  in  modern  and  evil  times.  They  have  been 
the  calling  up  again,  in  an  altered  garb,  of  principles 
as  old  as  the  days  when  we  get  our  first  sight  of  our 
forefathers  in  the  German  forests. 

Changed  as  it  is  in  all  outward  forms  and  circum- 

*  Hallam's  *'  Constitutional  History,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  532. 

f  See  "  Growth  of  the  English  Constitution,"  by  Freeman^ 
pp.  20,  21.  Macmillan,  1872. 


APPENDIX.  279 

stance*,  the  England  in  which  we  live  has,  in  its  true 
life  and  spirit,  far  more  in  common  with  the  England 
OL  the  earliest  times  than  it  has  with  the  Eugland  of 
clays  far  nearer  to  our  <  wn.  In  many  a  wholesome  act 
of  modern  legislation  we  have  gone  back,  wittingly  or 
unwittingly,  to  the  earliest  principle  of  our  race.  We 
have  advanced  by  falling  back  on  a  more  ancient  state 
of  th  ngs;  we  have  reformed  by  calling  to  life  again  the 
institutions  of  earlier  and  ruder  times,  by  setting  our- 
selves free  from  the  slavish  subtleties  of  Norman  law- 
yers, by  casting  aside  as  an  accursed  thing  the  innova- 
tions of  Tudor  tyranny  and  Stuart  usurpation. 

Again : 

Our  Englis1!  constitution  was  never  made  in  the 
spnse  in  which  the  constitutions  of  many  other  coun- 
tries have  been  made.  There  never  was  any  moment 
when  Englishmen  drew  out  their  political  system  in 
the  shape  of  a  formal  document,  whether  a  i  the  car- 
rjing  out  of  any  abstract  political  theories,  or  as  the 
imitation  of  the  past  or  present  system  of  any  other 
nation. 

Till  the  Charter  was  wrung  from  King  John,  men 
called  for  the  laws  of  good  King  Edward.  We  have 
made  changes  from  time  to  time,  but  they  have  been 
changes  at  once  conservative  and  progressive.  They 
have  been  the  application  of  ancient  principles  to  new 
circumstances;  they  have  been  the  careful  repairs  of  an 
ancieiit  building,  not  the  pulling  down  of  an  old  build- 
ing and  the  rearing  up  of  a  new. 

Our  national  assembly  has  changed  its  name  and  its 
constitution,  but  its  corporate  identity  has  lived  on  un- 
broken. In  France,  on  the  other  hand,  institutions 
have  been  the  work  of  abstract  theory;  they  have  been 
the  creations  for  good  or  for  evil  of  the  minds  of  indi- 
vidual men.  (Pp.  55,  64.) 

And  again : 

There  is,  indeed,  .a  wide  difference  between  the 
political  condition  of  England  under  Edward  I.  and  the 
political  condition  of  England  in  our  own  day,  but  the 
difference  lies  far  more  in  the  practical  working  of  the 
constitution  than  in  its  outward  form. 


280        PROTESTANT    FEBSECTJTION    OF   CATHOLICS. 

The  changes  have  been  many,  but  a  large  portion  of 
those  changes  have  not  been  formal  enactments,  but 
those  silent  changes  whose  gradual  working  has 
wrought  out  for  us  a  conventional  constitution  existing 
alongside  of  our  written  law. 

Speaking  generally,  and  allowing  for  the  important 
class  of  conventional  understandings  whi  h  have  never 
been  clothed  with  the  form  of  wr-tten  enactments,  the 
main  elements  of  the  English  constitution  remain  now 
as  they  were  fixed  then/'  (Pp.  86,  87.) 

And  again: 

At  last  came  the  sixteenth  century,  the  time  of  trial 
for  many  parliamentary  institutions  in  many  countries 
of  Europe.  Not  a  few  assemblies  which  had  once  been 
as  free  as  our  own  Parliament  were,  dii'  ing  that  age, 
swept  away  or  reduced  to  empty  formalities. 

Then  it  was  that  Charles  V.  and  Philip  II.  over- 
threw the  free  constitutions  of  Castile  and  Aragon  ; 
then  it  was  that  the  States-General  of  France  met  for 
the  last  time  but  one  before  their  last  meeting  of  all, 
on  the  eve  of  the  great  Revolution. 

In  England  parliamentary  institutions  were  not 
swept  away,  nor  did  Parliament  fcink  into  an  empty 
form ;  but  for  a  while  our  parliaments,  like  all  our 
other  institutions,  became  perverted  into  instruments 
of  tyranny. 

Every  act  which  has  restrained  the  arbitrary  prerog- 
ative of  the  Orown,  every  act  which  has  secured  or  in- 
creased either  the  powers  of  Parliame  t  or  the  liberty 
of  the  subject,  has  been  a  return,  sometimes  to  the 
letter,  at  all  times  to  the  spirit  of  our  earliest  law. 
(Pp.  98,  137.) 

These  examples  may  suffice  for  Protestant  nations. 
From  the  sixteenth  century  the  interior  government  of 
all  the  Catholic  States  has  been  bad,  but  on  the  whole 
the  masses  of  the  people  have  remained  faithful  to 
the  order,  discipline,  and  established  authority  of 
the/Church.  Preserved  for  200  years  from  the  dan- 
gers of  the  Reformation,  they  were  at  length  carried 
away  by  the  great  revolutionary  movement  of  1789, 


APPENDIX.  281 

which  was  itself  but  the  logical  development  of  Pro- 
testantism. 

Poland  forms  an  exception,  but  we  must  not  forget 
that  she  was  coveted  by  two  powerful  potentates  in  the 
East  and  West,  and  that  the  exclamation  of  one  of  her 
magnates,  "  Malo  periculosam  libertatem  quam  otio- 
sum  servitium,"  was  a  cry  of  self-defence  against  her 
powerful  enemies,  who  at  last  succeeded  in  their  guilty 
and  oft-renewed  attempts.  In  the  present  century 
there  is  but  one  Protestant  country  that  has  resisted 
all  the  revolutionary  aspirations  of  1789,  and  that 
country  is  England,  whose  inhabitants  have  remain- 
ed Christian,  and  whose  government  a^.one  since  the 
Csesarism  of  the  Benaissance  has  preserved  the 
forma  of  the  ancient  Catholic  governments  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages. 

Unquestionably  she  merits  much  praise,  and  Cath- 
olics owe  her  a  debt  of  gratitude  on  this  matter;  for 
them  England  has  remained  a  model  and  a  consola- 
tion :  a  model,  because  she  is  the  representative  of 
ancient  historical  and  Cat  b  olio  institutions  •  a  consola- 
tion, because  they  can  point  to  her  as  a  specimen  of 
what  all  European  countries  would  have  been  but  for 
the  excesses  of  the  Benaissance,  the  bigotry  of  the  sec- 
tarians in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  insolence  of  the 
governments  of  Louis  XIY. ,  the  Begency,  and  Louis 
XV.,  the  corrupti  n  of  the  encyclopaedists,  the  revolu- 
tionary theories  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  the  lib- 
eral ideas  of  the  nineteenth  century — none  of  which 
arose  from  Catholicism. 

Let  us  examine  the  present  condition  of  South 
America,  Spain  and  France,  for  Italy  (although  a 
Catholic  nation)  is  considered  by  our  opponents  to 
have  entered  their  new  path  to  salvation. 

In  Houth  America,  many  States  that  had  been  gov- 
erned by  European  powers  during  the  eighteenth  cen- 


282  8TATE  BEGULATION  OF    BELIGION. 

tury  found  themselves  suddenly  cut  adrift  from  them, 
and  for  the  space  of  forty  years  had  to  struggle  in  the 
throt  s  of  anarchy. 

These  States  were  Mexico,  Venezuela,  and  the  Ar- 
g-ntine  Eepublic,  all  of  which  were  governed  by  revo- 
lutionists or  men  who  had  adopted  the  principles  of 
1789. 

STATE    BEGTTLATION  OF  RELIGION  ENTHBALS  THE  MIND. 
[Note  to  Chapter  VI ".,  page  170  ] 

The  principle  that  the  civil  government  or  State  is 
entitled  to  regulate  the  religious  belief  of  a  country 
has  more  of  intellectual  thraldom  in  it  than  the  power 
of  tie  Catholic  Church  could  ever  have  exercised  ac- 
cording to  the  belief  of  Protestants  in  the  darkest 
ages,  for  it  had  no  civil  power  joined  to  its  religious 
power, 

The  Catholic  Church  was  an  independent,  distinct, 
and  often  an  opposing  power  in  every  country  to  the 
civil  authority,  a  circumstance  in  the  social  economy 
of  the  Middle  Ages  to  which  Europe  is  indebted  for 
her  civilization  and  freedom. 

When  governments  attempt  to  extend  their  power 
beyond  the  legitimate  object  for  which  government  is 
established  in  society,  and  wish  to  embrace  the  intel- 
lectual, moral,  and  religious  concerns,  as  well  as  the 
material  interests  of  their  subjects,  they  are  obliged  to 
adopt  a  middle  course  between  the  extreme  of  power 
they  would  usurp  and  the  innate  principle  in  the 
human  mind  of  resistance  to  power  over  intellectual 
action. 

This  middle  course,  founded  on  no  principle  but  the 
evasion  of  applying  principle  to  action,  has  been  the 
line  of  policy  of  most  European  statesmen  during  the 
century. 

Whilst    Europe    was    singing    the    praises  of  the 


APPENDIX.  283 

Prussian  system  of  education,  this  same  system  was 
driving  upwards  of  600  Christians  from  the  land  by 
religious  persecution,  who  went  from  Sile;-ia  to  the 
wilds  of  America,  in  order  that  they  might  worship  the 
Almighty  after  their  own  fashion,  rather  than  at  the 
dictation  of  their  sovereign. 

Whilst  the  condition  of  Prussia  as  regards  education 
stood  undoubtedly  high,  her  moral  state  was  so  low 
that  a  sect  called  the  Muckers,  who  openly  taught  the 
most  disgusting  practices  and  observances,*  embraced 
hundreds  of  the  nobility  and  clergy. 

If  to  read,  write  and  cipher  be  education,  the 
Prussians  are  an  educated  people;  but  if  to  reason, 
judge,  and  act  as  an  independent  free  agent  in  the  re- 
ligious, moral  and  social  relations  of  man  to  his  Creator 
and  to  his  fellow-men  be  that  exercise  of  the  mental 
powers,  which  alone  deserves  the  name  of  education, 
then  are  the  Prussians  utterly  deficient. 

The  intellectual  dependence  of  the  people  upon  the 
government,  the  abject  submission  to  the  want  of 
freedom,  or  free  agency,  in  thoughts,  words  or  acts, 
the  religious'  thraldom  of  the  people  to  forms  which 
they  despise,  the  want  of  influence,  of  religious  and 
social  principle  in  society,  justify  us  in  our  statements. 

MEDIJEVAL  FAMILIARITY  WITH   THE   SCRIPTURES. 

[Note  to  Chapter  VI.,  page  173.] 

No  one  who  has  studied  the  literature  of  the  Middle 
Ages  can  have  failed  to  perceive  the  strongest  evidence 
of  the  deep  Biblical  knowledge  it  contains.  Maitland,t 
in  his  "  Dark  Ages,"  writes  thus : 

The  writings  of  the  Dark  Ages  are  made  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. I  do  not  merely  mean  that  the  writers  con- 
stantly quoted  the  Scriptures,  and  appealed  to  them  as 

*  See  Laing's  "  Notes  of  a  Traveller." 
t  "The  Dark  Ages,"  by  the  Rev.  S.  B.  Maitland,  librarian  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.    P,  470. 


284          MEDIEVAL  FAMILIARITY  WITH  SCRIPTURE. 

authorities  on  all  occasions;  but  I  mean  that  they 
thought  and  spoke  arid  wrote  the  thoughts  a  d  words 
and  phrases  of  the  Bible,  and  that  they  did  this  con- 
stantly and  habitually  as  the  natural  m<>de  of  express- 
ing themselves. 

Further  on  the  same  writer  adds  : — 

I  cannot  help  suspecting  that  if  Bobertson  had  gone 
to  the  Archbishop  ot  Seville  in  the  seventh  century, 
the  Archbishop  of  Mayence  in  the  ninth,  or  the  Bish  p 
of  Chartrea  in  the  eleventh  for  holy  orders,  he  wou  d 
havH  found  the  examination  rather  more  than  he  ex- 
pected. P.  25. 

Again  he  says  • — 

A  monk  was  expected  to  know  the  Psalter  by  heart 
P.  338. 

Further  on  he  quotes  the  famous  example  of  the 
sermon  of  the  Bishop  of  Noyon  in  the  seventh  cen- 
tury, which  Bobertson  and  Mosheiin  quote  ai  evidence 
of  the  barren  theology  of  that  age,  and  remarks  : — 

It  seems  to  have  been  written  as  if  the  author  had 
anticipated  each  and  all  of  Mosheim's  charges,  and  in- 
tended to  furnish  a  pointed  answer  to  every  one.  P. 
113. 

"In  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries,"  says  Hallam 
("Middle  Ages,"  iii.  474),  "when  the  Vu'gate  had 
ceased  to  be  generally  intelligible,  ....  translations 
were  freely  made  into  the  vernacular  languages." 

CATHOLIC  RESPECT  FOR    SCIENCE. 
[Note  to  Chapter  VI.,  page  178.] 

The  following  are  the  words  of  the  present  Pontiff, 
Leo  XIII.,  on  this  subject : 

How  grand  and  how  full  of  majesty  does  man  ap- 
pear when  he  arrests  the  thunderbolt,  ....  sum- 
mons the  electric  flash,  ....  how  powerful  \vhen  h« 

taken  possession  of  the  force  of  steam Is  there 

not  in  man  when  he  does  these  things  some  spark  of 


APPENDIX.  285 

creative  power  ?  .  .  .  .  The  Church  views  these  things 
with  joy.* 

PROTESTANT  PRUSSIAN    MORALITY. 
[Note  to  Chapter  VIL,  page  187.] 

The  Evangelical  Consistory  assembled  in  full  coun- 
cil, authorized  Philip,  the  generous  Elector  of  Hesse, 
on  the  strength  of  Melancthon's  tolerant  maxims,  to 
seat  two  Electresses  upon  the  throne  at  the  same  time. 

The  King  of  Prussia,  Frederick  William  II.,  who  had 
given  his  right  hand  to  his  queen,  gave  his  left  to 
Countess  Ju  ia  Yon  Voss. 

This  second  in  rriage  ceremony  was  performed  on 
the  25th  of  May,  1787,  in  the  chapel  of  the  castle  at 
Charlottenburg,  by  Zoellner,  the  chaplain  of  the  royal 
family  at  the  Court. 

EVANGELICAL     GERMAN    IMMORALITY. 

[Note  to  Chapter  VIL,  page  188.] 

Prince  Pukler  Muskauf  states  in  one  of  his  publica- 
tions that  the  character  of  the  Prussians  for  honesty 
eta  Lids  far  lower  than  that  of  any  other  of  the  German 
populations,  and  as  a  Prussian  he  would  scarcely  come 
to  such  a  conclusion  unless  it  were  generally  believed 
in  Germany. 

Laing  says: 

It  is  an  undeniable  fact  that  the  Prussians  are  in  a 
remarkably  demoralized  condition  in  those  branches  of 
moral  conduct  which  cannot  be  taught  in  schools,  and 
are  not  taught  by  the  parents,  because  parental  tuition 
is  broken  in  upon  by  the  interference  of  the  Govern- 
ment. Of  all  the  virtues  that  which  the  domestic 
family  education  of  both  the  sexrs  most  obviously  in- 
fluences, that  which  marks  more  clearly  than  any 

*  See  Lenten  Pastoral  for  1877,  by  Cardinal  Pecci,  now  Pope 
Leo  XIII.,  entitled  "  The  Church  and  Civilization, 
f  "  Sudostlicher  £ilder$aal,"  3  vols.,  1844. 


286  EVANGELICAL    GEBMAN   LIBEKALITY. 

other  the  moral  condition  of  a  society,  the  home  state 
of  moral  and  religious  principles,  the  efficiency  of  those 
principles  in  it,  and  the  amount  of  that  nn  ral  restraint 
upon  passions  and  impulses  which  it  is  the  object  of 
education  and  knowledge  to  obtain,  is  undoubtedly  fe- 
male chastity. 

And  yet  I  think  no  traveller  or  no  Prussian  will  say 
that  this  index  virtue  of  the  moral  condition  of  a  people 
is  not  lower  in  Prussia  than  in  almost  any  other  part 
of  Europe. 

It  is  no  uncommon  event  in  the  family  of  a  respect- 
able tradesman  in  Berlin  to  find  upon  his  breakfast 
table  a  litt  e  baby  of  which  he  has  no  doubt  at  all  about, 
the  m  .ternal  grandfather. 

Sucli  accidents  are  only  regarded  as  youthful  indis- 
cretions, and  nofe  as  disgraces,  affecting  as  with  us  the 
respectability  and  happine.  s  of  many  a  generation."* 

All  the  social  errors  of  France  are  to  be  found  in 
Prussia,  though  possibly  not  visibly  apparent  to  the 
public. 

The  statistics  recently  published^!876)  by  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  high  Evangelical  Consistory  on  the  rel- 
ative proportion  of  legitimate  to  illegitimate  bir  hs  are 
as  follows  in  the  Evangelical  parishes  of  the  various 
districts  : 

Hohenzollern  ....  2. 50  per  cent. 

Westphalia 2.65 

Ehine  Provinces        .         .         .         .  2.79 

Posen 6.77 

Prussian  Saxony        ...  9.12 


Brandenbourg  (except  Berlin) 

Prussia  Proper 

Pomerania 

Silesia 

Berlin 


9.16 
9.58 
9.95 
10.15 
12.91 


The  Evangelical  Church  of  Prussia  is  thus  shown  by 
her  own  confession  to  be  losing  her  moral   and  relig- 

*  Laing's  "Notes  of  a  Traveller, "p.  1B7. 


APPENDIX.  287 

ions  ascendency   over  the  minds  of  the  gi  eat  mass  of 
the  population. 

IKISH   CATHOLIC  MORALITY. 
[Note  to  Chapter  V IT ,  page  190.] 

A  few  years  ago  a  distinguished  Protestant  writer 
published  a  work  entitled  "Memorandums  made  in 
Ireland  in  the  Autumn  of  1852, "in  tl;e  course  of  which 
he  bears  frequent  and  ungrudging  testimony  to  the  in- 
fluence of  the  confessional  as  an  agent  of  purity.  The 
writer  was  Dr.  Forbes,  one  of  her  Majesty's  physicians. 
We  transcribe  some  passages  from  his  work  which  we 
find  quoted  in  the  April  number  of  the  Dublin  Review, 
pp.  437-8: 

"  At  any  rate,"  says  Dr.  Forbes,  "the  result  of  my 
inquiries  is,  that  whether  right  or  wrong  in  a  theo- 
logical or  rational  point  of  view,  this  instrument  of 
confession  is,  among  the  Irish  of  the  humbler  classes, 
a  direct  preservative  against  certain  forms  of  immo- 
rality, at  least"  (vol.  ii.,  p.  81).  "Among  other 
charges  preferred  against  confession  in  Ireland  and 
elsewhere  is  the  facility  it  affords  for  corrupting  the 
female  mind,  and  of  its  actually  leading  to  such  cor- 
ruption. So  far  from  such  corruption  resulting  from 
the  confessional,  it  is  the  general  belief  in  Ireland,  a 
belief  expressed  to  me  by  many  trustworthy  men  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  both  by  Protestants  as  well  as 
Catholics,  that  the  singular  purity  of  fenrile  life  among 
the  lower  classes  there  is  in  a  considerable  degree  de- 
pendant on  this  very  circumstance"  (p.  83).  "  With  a 
view  of  testing  as  far  as  was  practicable  the  truth  of 
the  theory  respecting  the  influence  of  confession  on 
this  branch  of  morals,  I  have  obtained  through  the 
courtesy  of  the  Poor  Law  Commissioners  a  return  of 
the  number  of  legitimate  and  illegitimate  children  in 
the  workhouses  of  each  of  the  four  provinces  of  Ire- 
land on  a  particular  day,  viz.,  27th  November,  1852. 

It  is  curious  to  mark  how  strikingly  the  results  there 
conveyed  correspond  with  the  confession  theory  ;  the 
proportion  of  illegitimate  children  coinciding  almost 


288  IRISH    CATHOLIC    MORALITY. 

exactly  with  the  relative  proportions  of  the  two  re- 
ligions in  each  province;  being  large  where  the  Pro- 
testant element  is  large,  and  small  where  it  is  small." 
&c.,  &c..  (p.  345). 

While  writing  on  this  subject,  we  may  be  allowed  to 
quote  the  testimony  of  another  Protestant  writer,  Mr. 
William  Gilbert,  who,  in  an  article  published  in 
Christian  Work,  in  May,  1864,  states  that — 

*'  While  under  the  guidance  of  their  priests,  Irish 
women  as  a  class  enjoy,  and  with  justice,  a  reputation 
for  respectability  of  conduct,  unsurpassed,  if  equalled, 
by  any  women  in  the  world. " 

In  Ireland  cases  of  infanticide  and  baby-farming  are 
almost  unknown,  whilst  in  England  and  Scotland 
scarcely  a  day  passes  by  without  the  papers  referring 
to  two  or  three  such  occurrences. 

The  facts  we  have  adduced  in  these  pages  are 
amply  sufficient  to  demonstrate  the  fallacy  of  the 
chain  of  arguments  usel  by  our  opponents;  but  before 
quitting  the  subject  we  will  quote  the  illegitimate 
births  in  the  poor-housts  of  the  British  Isles,  as  given 
by  Dr.  Forbes: 

Ireland    1  illegitimate  birth  to  16*47  legitimate. 
England  1  "     to    1-49 

Wales      1  "     to    0-46 

A  striking  testimong  of  the  truth  of  our  remarks  has 
recently  been  witnessed.  Not  long  ago  an  assertion 
of  immorality  was  made  in  an  English  newspaper* 
celebrated  for  its  defence  of  Evangelical  truth,  against 
Irishwomen  in  general,  and  the  Irish  Church  in  par- 
ticular, in  the  following  words  : 

"  The  much  vaunted  cbastity  of  Irish  girls  is  a  myth. 

In  the  rural  districts  of  Ireland  the  priest  is  the  se- 
ducer of  the  parish,  and  the  early  improvident  mar- 

*  The  J£ock,  a  Church  of  England  family  newspaper,  Oct.  6, 
1S77. 


APPENDIX.  289 

riages  of  the  voting  people  are  encouraged  by  him  to 
conceal  his  immorality.  There  is  not  and  cannot  be 
chastity  where  Popery  reigns. " 

These  observations  drew  forth  from  Lord  Oranmore 
a  reply  which  we  give  in  extenso  .• 

"SiB — A  letter  appears  in  your  number  of  the  5th 
instant  headed,  'Chastity  of  Irish  Girls.'  I  believe 
there  can  be  no  more  uncompromising  Protestant,  no 
one  more  convinced  of  the  evils  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
system  than  I  am.  I  have  taken  the  Rock  since  it  was 
published,  and  admire  its  straightforward  advocacy  of 
Protestant  principles,  and  therefore  I  the  more  regret 
that  by  some  oversight  a  paragraph  so  calumnious 
and  untrue  should  find  place  in  its  columns.  I  have 
spent  much  of  my  life  in  a  Roman  Catholic  part  of  Ire- 
land, and  know  well  not  only  that  Irish  girls  are  gen- 
erally chaste,  but  that  it  is  quite  an  exception  that  Irish 
priests  are  (in  this  sense)  immoral  men;  and  yet  this 
paragraph  attributes  to  the  whole  body  adultery  with 
malice  aforethought  and  prepense.  The  admission  of 
such  a  paragraph  into  your  journal  cannot  but  bring 
discredit  on  the  good  cause  your  journal  so  ably  sup- 
ports. .  ORANMOBE. 

Castle  MacGarrett, 
Co.  Mayo." 

Such  testimony  as  this  in  our  favor,  from  one  of  our 
strongest  opponents,  ought  to  convince  every  reason- 
able man  of  the  truth  of  our  previous  assertion  with 
reference  to  the  morality  of  the  Irish,  even  should 
he  refuse  to  believe  in  the  morality  of  the  great  mass^ 
of  Catholics. 

THE    PROTESTANT    REFORMATION    IN    ENGLAND. 

[Note  to  Chapter  FJ/.,  page  209.] 

England,  under  Elizabeth,  furnishes  a  most  striking 
example  of  the  inauguration  of  Jiberty  by  the  Protes- 
tant Reformation.  In  this  reign  not  only  the  episco- 
pal office,  but  also  ecclesiastical  doctrine  was  subjected 
to  the  will  of  the  sovereign. 


290  THE    REFORMATION    IN    ENGLAND. 

Hallam*  writes  thus  of  the  Anglican  Church  in 
1566  :  "  The  novel  theory  of  ecclesiastical  authoiity 
resolved  all  its  spiritual  as  well  as  temporal  powers 
into  the  royal  supremacy,"  a  statement  which  is  con- 
firmed by  English  lawyers.  Blackstone,  for  instance, 
says  :  "  The  authority  heretofore  exercised  by  the 
Pope  is  now  annexed  to  the  Crown  by  the  statutes  of 
Henry  VIII.,  Edward  and  Elizabeth,  "f 

The  Anglican  Church  is  in  complete  subjection  to 
the  State.  Such  are  the  words  of  the  leading  ecclesi- 
astical papers  in  England  of  the  present  day— words 
which  have  been  amply  verified  by  recent  legislation. 
The  "  Public  Worship  Regulation  Act"  is  an  example 
of  this,  an  Act  hurried  through  by  a  Parliament  com- 
posed of  men  of  every  shade  of  belief,  in  one  session, 
and  then  forced  upon  a  body  of  clergy  who  were  cer- 
tainly not  in  favor  ot  it.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  also, 
that  Convocation,  which  may  in  a  certain  sense  be  con- 
sidered as  the  mouthpiece  of  the  Anglican  clergy,  was 
not  even  consulted  oa  the  matter. 

The  tolerant  legislation  for  Ireland  is  so  well  known 
that  in  a  short  work  like  the  present  it  is  unnecessary 
to  dwell  much  on  it,  but  f  r  the  benefit  of  those  who 
are  under  the  delusion  that  Protestantism  produces 
civil  liberty  we  will  quote  a  few  of  the  penal  laws, 
which  prove  the  fact  that  children  were  torn  away 
from  their  parents'  protection,  priests  were  hung  or 
exiled,  and  those  who  refused  to  conform  to  the 
wishes  of  the  British  government  were  made  serfs  in 
their  own  land.  In  England  for  three  hundred  years 
Catholics  were  hunted  like  wilcl  beasts,  and  the  pun- 
ishment of  death  was  inflicted  on  a  priest  for  saying 
the  Mass. 

*  Hallam's  "  Constitutional  History,"  vol.  i.  p.  100. 
t  Blackstone'a  '<  Commentaries,"  vol.  iii.  p.  67. 


APPENDIX.  291 

In  the  year  1695  the  following  laws  were  enacted: — 

1.  The  Catholic  Peers  were  deprived  of  their  right 
to  sit  in  Parliament. 

2.  Catholic  gentlemen  were  forbidden  to  be  elected 
as  members  of  Parliament. 

3.  Catholics  were  denied  the  liberty  of  voting,  and 
were  excluded  from  all  offices  of  trust  and  all  remun- 
erative employment. 

4.  They  were  fined  £80  a  month  for  absence  from 
Protestant  worship. 

5.  They  were  forbidden  to  travel  five  miles  from 
their  houses,  to  keep  arms,  to  maintain  suits  at  law, 
or  to  be  guardians  or  executors. 

6.  Any  four  justices  of  the  peace  could,  without 
further  trial,  banish  any  man  for  life  if  he  refused  to 
attend  the  Protestant  service. 

7.  Any  two  justices  of  the  peace  could  call  any  man 
over  sixteen  before  them,  and  if  he  refused  to  abjure 
the  Catholic  religion,  could  bestow  his  property  on 
the  next  of  kin. 

8.  No  Catholic  c  mid  employ   a    Catholic  school- 
master to  educate  his  children;  and   if  he   sent  his 
child  abroad  for  education  he  was  subject  to  a  fine  of 
£100,  and  the  child  could  not  inherit  any  property  in 
England  or  Ireland. 

9.  Any  Catholic  priest  who  came  to  the  country 
might  be  hanged. 

10.  Any  Protestant  suspecting  any  other  Protestant 
of  holding  property  in  trust  for  a   Catholic  might  file 
a  bill  against  the  suspected  trustee  and  take  the  estate 
from  him. 

11.  Any  Protestant  seeing  a  Catholic  tenant- at- will 
on   a  farm  which,  in  his  opinion,   yielded  one- third 
more  than  the  yearly  rent,  might  enter  on  that  farm, 
and,  by  simply  swearing  to  the  fact,  take  possession. 

12.  Any  Protestant  might  take  away  the  horse  of  a 


292  THE    KEFORMATION    IN    ENGLAND. 

Catholic,   no  matter  liow  valuable,  by  simply  paying 
him  £5. 

13.  Horses  and  wagons  belonging  to  Catholics  were 
in  all  cases  to  be  seized  for  the  use  of  the  Militia. 

14.  Any  Catholic  gentleman's  child  who  became  a 
Protestant  could  at  once  take  possession  of  his  father's 
property. 

The  13th  of  Charles  II,,  commonly  called  "The 
Corporation  Act,"  excluded  Catholics  from  offices  in 
cities  and  corporations. 

The  25th  Charles  II.,  commonly  called  "The  Test 
Act,"  excluded  them  from  all  civil  and  military  offices. 

The  30th  Charles  IT.  prevented  them  from  taking 
part  in  the  legislation  of  the  country. 

An  Act  of  William  and  Mary  prevented  the  use  of 
the  Parliamentary  franchise. 

The  horrors  of  the  penal  code  were  slightly  relaxed 
in  1778,  when  American  agitation  and  British  fear  per- 
mitted Catholics  to  hold  property  on  leases  for  lives, 
but  still  the  vast  majority  of  the  nation  was  excluded 
from  the  franchises,  offices,  and  honors  of  the  State, 
not  on  account  of  any  moral  or  political  delinquency, 
but  merely  on  account  of  its  rel  gion.  The  whole  his- 
tory of  the  persecutions  which  Catholics  have  endured 
at  the  hands  of  Protestants  of  every  denomina  ion  is 
one  of  the  most  curious  phases  of  human  perversity 
that  the  philosopher  can  find  to  study. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Leland,  a  Protestant  minister,  writes 
as  follows*  on  the  plantation  of  Ulster,  which  James  I. 
and  his  successor  not  only  devised,  but  carried  into 
effect: 

They  obtained  commissions  of  inquiry  into -defective 
titles  and  grants  of  concealed  lands  and  rents  belong- 
ing to  the  Crown,  the  great  beuefit  of  ^hich  was  to 
accrue  to  the  projector,  whilst  the  King  was  contented 

*  JLeiand,  book  iv.  chap.  8. 


APPENDIX.  293 

•with  an  inconsiderable  proportion  of  the  concealment, 
or  a  email  advance  of  rent. 

Discoverers  were  everywhere  busily  en-ployed  in 
find  iig  out  flaws  in  men's  titles  to  their  estates  The 
old  pipe-ro  Is  were  searched  to  find  the  original  rents 
\vi  h  which  they  had  been  charged,  the  patent  ro'ls  in 
the  Tower  of  London  were  ransacked  f  <  r  the  ancient 
grants,  no  means  of  industry  or  devic;  s  of  craft  were 
left  uii tried  to  forca  the  possessors  to  accept  of  new 
grants  at  t<n  advanced  rent.  In  general  men  were 
eirher  conscious  of  defects  in  their  titles,  or  alarmed  afc 
the  trou'o  e  and  expense  of  a  cutest  with  the  Cro\\n, 
or  fearful  of  the  issue  of  such  a  contest  at  a  time  ana 
in  a  country  wh  re  the  prerogat  ve  was  highly  strained 
and  strenuously  supported  by  the  judges.  There  are 
not  wanting  proofs  (  f  the  most  iniquitous  practices  of 
hardened  cruelty,  of  vile  perjury,  and  scandalous  sub- 
ornation, employed  to  despoil  the  fair  and  unoffending 
proprietor  of  his  inheritance. 

Unheard-of  confiscations  were  made  in  the  northern 
parts,  upon  grounds  of  plots  and  conspiracies  never 
proved  upon  their  supposed  authors.  The  original 
scheme  of  depopulation  was  never  lost  sight  of,  and  a 
regular  series  of  operations  was  carried  on  by  special 
commissions  and  inquisitions,  first  under  pretence  of 
tenures  and  then  of  titles  in  the  Crown,  until  the 
original  inhabitants  were  almost  completely  extermi- 
nated. Parliament  passed  a  law  vesting  the  entire 
land  of  six  counties  in  the  Crown,  the  property  of 
Irishmen,  and  the  King  immediately  distributed  up  • 
wards  of  385, 000  acres  to  his  followers.  *  There  were 
three  divisions  made  of  the  spoils — first,  to  English 
and  Scotch,  who  were  to  plant  their  portions  of  terri- 
tory with  English  and  Scotch  tenants;  secondly,  to 
servitors  in  Ireland— that  is,  to  persons  employed  un- 
der the  Government,  who  might  take  English  or  Irish 
tenants  at  their  choice;  thirdly,  to  the  natives  of  those 

*  Leland,  book  iv..,  chap,  8. 


294:  THE    BEFOBMATION    IN    ENGLAND. 

counties,  who  were  to  be  freeholders.  Catholics  and 
persons  of  Irish  descent,  who  were  known  by  the  name 
of  "  mere  Irish, "  were  altogether  excluded  from  this 
part  cf  the  country. 

Such  was  the  Plantation  of  Ulster,  and,  to  show  the 
spirit  in  which  it  was  made,  we  give  the  following 
"Articles,"  extracted  from  the  orders  and  conditions 
of  (he  Plantation  of  Ulster  : 

(7.)  "The  said  undertakers,  their  heirs  and  assigns, 
shad  not  alien  or  demise  their  portions,  or  any  part 
tuereof  to  the  mere  Irish,  or  to  such  persons  as  will  not 
take  the  rath  which  the  said  undertakers  are  bound  to 
take  by  the  said  article,  and  to  that  end  a  proviso  shall 
be  inse  ted  in  the  letters  patent." 

(8. )  "  Tiie  said  undertakers  shall  T  ok  alien  their  por- 
tions during  five  years  next  alter  the  date  of  their  let- 
ters patent,  but  in  this  manner,  viz. ,  one  third  part  in 
fee  farm,  &o.  But  after  the  said  five  years  they  shall 
be  at  liberty  to  alien  to  all  persons  except  the  mere 
Irish."  (Harris's  "  Hibernica,"  p.  66.) 

The  documents  here  cited  give  but  a  faint  idea  of 
the  extreme  misery  created  by  this  plantation.  The 
a  ministration  of  the  law  was  quite  consistent  with  the 
temper  of  the  times,  and  the  Protestant  Bishop  Bur- 
net  does  not  hesitate  to  denounce  the  partiality  and  in- 
justice that  were  exhibited.* 

Scotland  furnishes  us  with  an  example  of  a  country 
entirely  given  up  to  the  spirit  of  intolerance.  Lord 
Clarendon,  speaking  of  the 'Scotch  in  1650,  says: 
"Their  whole  religion  cons:sts  in  hatred  of  Popery." 
Fe\y  "cpostlt  s  of  tolerance  "  pushed  a  hatred  of  truth 
to  such  a  pitch  as  John  Knox,  who  declared  that  it 
rightly  appertained  to  the  civil  power  to  regulate 
everything  connected  with  religion.  He  issued  a  war- 
rant of  death  against  anyone  who  should  celebrate  the 
holy  sacrifice  of  the  Mass  twice.  An  ecclesiastical 
*  Bishop  Buriiet'a  "Lite  of  Bishop  Bedell." 


APPENDIX.  295 

tyranny  was  established  under  his  direction,  of  which 
it  is  now  hardly  possible  to  form  a  conception.  In 
Chambers'  '•  Domestic  Annals  "  we  find  the  statement 
that  the  private  life  of  each  individual  was  subjected 
to  investigation  like  that  exercised  in  the  East. 

The  despotism  exercised  by  the  ruling  authorities  in 
Scotland  exceeded  that  in  Geneva,  the  birthplace  of 
Calvinism  and  centre  of  revolutionary  intrigue. 

In  1713,  Parliament,  aided  by  the  Crown,  compelled 
the  Scotch  Calvinists  to  tolerate  the  introduction  of  an 
Episcopal  Church.  The  year  1735  marks  the  first  ap- 
proach of  any  kind  of  liberty  in  Scotland,  and  then  "or 
the  first  time  the  poor  Highlanders,  who  hid  remained 
steadfast  to  the  Catholic  Church,  obtained  permission 
to  come  down  from  their  mountainous  abodes  in  order 
to  practise  the  religion  of  their  ancestors,  and  to  teach 
England  the  spiritual  power  of  the  faith  of  Edward  the 
Confessor. 


NOTES  FBOM  AMEKICAN  SOURCES. 

The  American  Centennial  celebration  naturally 
brought  up  the  discussion  of  many  of  the  questions 
raised  in  this  work  of  Baron  de  Haulleville.  At  the 
Philadelphia  exposition.  American  Protestants  keenly 
contrasted  the  displays  made  by  the  Protestant  and 
Catholic  nations  and  while  in  many  cases  they  were 
astonished  and  disappointed  to  find  that  the  Protestant 
empire  of  Germany  was  so  far  inferior  to  the  Catholic 
nations,  not  merely  of  Europe,  but  of  South  America, 
there  were  others  who  abundantly  and  candidly  testi- 
fied to  Catholic  superiority.  We  make  a  few  extracts 


29G  NOTES    FBOM    AMERICAN    SOUBCES. 

from  Protestant  newspapers,  to  show  this.  But  before 
doing  so,  we  extract  a  terse,  statement  of  the  whole 
argument,  from  a  Catholic  Centennial  address  deliver- 
ed in  New  Orleans  by  Mr.  Thomas  Semmes,  on  the 
thirtieth  anniversary  of  Pio  Nono: 

"I  hope  ever  to  see  America  among  the  foremost  nations  in-  exam, 
pies  of  justice  and  liberty;  and  I  presume  that  your  fellow-citizens 
will  not  forget  the  patriotic  pa  -t  which  you  took  in  the  accomplishment- 
of  their  re  volution  f  or  the-  important  assistance  vfhich  they  received 
from  a  nation  in  which  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  is  professed." 

What  I  have  just  read  is  an  extract  from  the  response 
of  General  Washington  to  an  address  of  the  Roman 
Catholics  of  America  on  his  accession  to  the  Presidency. 
That  address  was  only  signed  by  five  persons,  as  fol- 
lows: "  In  behalf  of  the  Boman  Catholic  clergy — J. 
Carroll."  " In  behalf  of  the  Boman  Catholic  laity- 
Charles  Carroll,  of  Carrollton,,  Daniel  Carroll,  Thomas 
Fitzsimmons,  Dominick  Lynch.  '*  In  1784  the  Bev, 
Dr.  Carroll  was  appointed  Superior  of  all  the  Catholic 
clergy  in  the  United  States.  It  was  not  until  after  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  had  been  adopted 
and  the  Government  established,  that  the  Holy  See 
issued  the  Papal  bull  appointing  Baltimore  as  the 
episcopal  city,  and  Dr.  Carroll  as  the  first  Bishop  of 
the  United  States.  This  bull  is  dated  November  6th, 
1789.  (Mr.  Semmes  here  read  an  extract  from  the 
bull,  which  want  of  space  compels  us  to  omit).  There 
being  no  Bishop  in  the  United  States,  Dr.  Carroll 
sailed  for  Europe  in  the  summer  of  1790,  and  was  con- 
secrated Bishop  of  Baltimore  August  15th  of  that  year, 
by  the  Yicar  Apostolic  of  London.  Thus  was  the 
Catholic  Church,  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the 
Federal  Constitution,  organized  in  the  United  States, 
with  an  episcopacy  independent  of  all  ecclesiastical 
authority,  save  that  of  the  Apostolic  See  and  the  Bo- 
man  Pontiff, 


APPENDIX.  297 

The  infant  nation  and  the  newly-organized  Church 
started  together  in  the  race  of  development.  The  na- 
tion has  become  great  and  powerful;  the  Church  has 
nob  merely  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  civilization  and 
erecttd  churches  and  schools  in  every  valley  and  on 
every  moun'aiu  top,  but  nhe  h  s  penetrated  the  wild- 
esb  haunts  of  the  savage  in  the  execution  of  her  Divine 
mission,  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  all  men.  When  the 
Kev.  Dr.  Carroll  was  appointed  Bishop  of  the  United 
S  ates,  the  Catholic  population  numbered  about  40, 000 
of  whom  16,000  were  inhabitants  of  Maryland,  and 
7,000  resided  in  Pennsylvania.  About  thirty  pries  s 
exerc'sed  the  functions  of  the  ministry.  la  this  Cen- 
tennial year,  we  have  sixty-seven  bishops,  5,000  priests, 
6, 500  churches,  1,700  parish  schools,  and  6,000,000  of 
population.  Can  ifc  be  said  that  a  Church  which  mani- 
fests such  imraens)  progress  and  development  in  a 
free  country,  unaided  by  Government,  struggling  with 
poverty  and  innumerable  adversa  influences  is  effeta 
and  in  a  state  of  decadence,  because  of  ltd  want  of 
adaptability  to  the  civilization  of  this  enlightened  era? 
No  proposition  is  more  susceptible  of  demonstration, 
than  that  the  Catlulic  Church,  if  left  to  itself,  if  not 
f  ttered  by  alliance  with  the  State,  or  repressed  by 
hostil  3  secular  powers,  will  thrive  and  grow,  and  keep 
pace  with  and  promote  literature,  art,  science,  morals, 
the  in  ividuality  of  man,  all  that  constitutes  true  civ- 
ilization. This  fact  alone  is  the  most  unerring  evi- 
d  nee  that  its  teachings  and  its  discipline 'are  in  har- 
mony with  man's  nature  and  the  dignity  and  indepen- 
dence of  his  intellect  whatever  to  the  contrary  may  be 
said  by  those  who  think,  or  profess  to  believe,  that 
submission  to  divine  authority  is  slavery. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  of  the  age  to  decry  Catholi- 
cism as  repressive  of  the  energies  of  the  people,  and 
antagonistic  to  social  and  moral  progress.  For  this 


298  NOTES   FROM    AMERICAN    SOURCES. 

purpose  comparisons  are  frequently  instituted  between 
nations  that  profess  the  Catholic  faith  and  those  which 
ar^  non-Catholic.  Until  recently,  no  credit  whatever 
was  given  the  Catholic  Church  for  the  invaluable  ser- 
vices rendered  to  civilization  in  constructing  society 
after  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  the  pro- 
tection of  the  people  during  the  reign  of  violence  and 
pillage  which  characterized  the  Middle  Ages.  But  now 
scholars  concur  in  the  tribute  paid  to  the  Church  by 
Lecky,  in  his  History  of  Rationalism  in  Europe,  vol.  2, 
p.  37,  where  he  says:  "By  consolidating  the  hetero- 
geneous and  anarchical  elements  that  succeeded  the 
downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire:  by  infusing  into  Chris- 
tendom the  conception  of  a  bond  of  unity,  that  is  supe- 
rior to  the  divisions  of  nationhood,  and  of  a  moral  tie 
which  is  superior  to  force;  by  softening  slavery  into 
serfdom  and  preparing  the  way  for  the  ultimate  eman- 
cipation of  labor,  Catholicism  laid  the  very  foundation 
of  modern  civilization.  Herself  the  most  admirable  of 
all  organizations,  there  were  formed  beneath  her  in- 
fluence a  vast  network  of  organizations — political, 
municipal  and  social — which  supplied  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  materials  of  almost  every  modern  struc- 
ture." In  another  page  the  same  author  says:  "  That 
Church,  which  often  seemed  so  haughty  and  overbear- 
ing in  its  dealings  with  kings  and  nobles,  never  failed 
to  listen  to  the  poor  and  to  the  oppressed,  and  for 
many  centuries  their  protection  was  the  foremost  of  all 
the  objects  of  its  policy."  He  then  proceeds  to  show 
how  the  barbarians  who  overturned  the  empire  des- 
pised learning  and  contemned  labor,  and  how  the 
Church,  to  destroy  this  idle  life  of  pillage,  organized  an 
army  of  monks,  who,  with  faith  in  Christ,  believed  in 
knowledge  and  work;  how  they  revived  the  traditions 
of  old  Roman  agriculture;  and  large  tracts  of  France 
and  Belgium  were  drained  and  planted  by  their  hands; 


APPENDIX.  299 

how  a  monastery  became  the  nucleus  around  which  the 
inhabitants  of  the  neighborhood  clustered;  how  a  town 
was  thus  gradually  formed,  stimulated  by  the  industry 
of  the  monks;  how,  in  order  to  elevate  and  dignify  the 
work,  the  most  eminent  prelates  did  not  disdain  man- 
ual labor,  as  is  related  of  Thomas  a  Becket,  who  was  in 
the  habit  of  laboring  during  harvest  time  in  the  fields 
with  the  monks  at  the  monasteries  which  he  visited. 
This  Church,  so  admirably  adapted  to  the  wants  cf  so- 
ciety in  times  past,  it  is  said,  is  in  these  modern  times 
not  only  a  useless  machine,  but  actually  retards  intel- 
lectual progress  and  hinders  the  development  of  civili- 
zation. 

This  word  "civilization"  has  been  in  use  about  one 
hundred  years,  though  Dr.  Johnson  would  not  allow  of 
it;  it  is  a  very  indefinite  term,  and  conveys  widely  dif- 
fering significations.  Burke  considered  the  essence  of 
civilization  to  consist  *  *  in  the  spirit  of  religion  and  the 
spirit  of  a  gentleman."  Another  writer  tells  us  "  civi- 
lization is  nothing  else  but  the  knowledge  and  observ- 
ance of  natural  laws."  M.  Guizot  does  not  undertake 
in  his  lectures  to  give  a  definition  of  civilization.  Mr. 
Buckle  seems  to  restrict  it  to  "the  triumph  of  mind 
over  external  agents."  Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill  says: 
"The  word  'civilization'  is  a  word  of  double  meaning. 
We  are  accustomed  to  call  a  country  civilized  if  we 
think  it  more  improved,  more  eminent  in  the  best 
characteristics  of  men  and  society,  further  advanced  in 
the  road  to  perfection,  happier,  nobler,  wiser.  But  in 
another  sense  it  stands  for  that  kind  of  improvement 
only  which  distinguishes  a  wealthy  and  powerful  nation 
from  savages,  or  barbarians."  "The  true  test  of 
civilization,"  says  Emerson,  "is  not  the  census,  nor 
the  size  of  cities,  nor  the  crops — no,  but  the  kind  of 
man  the  country  turns  out. " 

"The  superstition/' says  Herbert  Spencer,  "that 


300  NOTES    FROM    AMERICAN    SOURCES. 

good  behavior  is  to  be  forthwith  produced  by  lessons 
learned  out  of  books,  which  was  long  ago  statistically 
disproved,  would,  but  for  preconceptions,  be  utterly 
dissipated  by  observing  to  what  a  slight  extent  knowl- 
edge affects  conduct — by  observing  that  the  honesty 
implied  in  the  adulterations  of  tradesmen  and  manu- 
facturers, in  fraudulent  bankruptcies,  in  bubble  com- 
panies, in  f  cooking '  of  railway  accounts  and  financial 
prospectuses,  differs  only  in  form,  and  not  in  amount, 
from  the  dishonesty  of  the  uneducated."  There  is  no 
doubt  that  religion  is  a  necessary  element  of  true  civi- 
lization, and  the  corruption  of  the  ages  comes  out  of 
the  spread  and  prevalence  of  ph  losophical  theories 
which  ignore  God  and  religion.  According  to  these 
theories,  the  basis  of  all  social  and  intellectual  devel- 
opment is  wealth,  the  whole  edifice  of  the  civilization 
of  the  present  day  rests  upon  an  enlightened  selfish- 
ness. The  Pall  Mall  Gazette  declared  in  1869  that 
"  it  was  impossible  to  reconcile  any  form  of  Christian 
theology  with  what  we  call  civilization  and  progress.*' 
Dr.  Newman  thus  describes  the  principal  opinions 
of  the  philosophers  :  '  *  That  moral  and  physical  evil 
are  nothing  more  than  imperfections  of  a  parallel  na- 
ture ;  that  the  difference  in  gravity  between  the  two  is 
one  of  degree  only,  not  of  kind :  that  moral  evil  is 
merely  the  offspring  of  physical,  and  that  as  we  re- 
move the  latter  so  we  invariably  remove  the  former  ; 
that  there  is  a  progress  of  the  human  race  which  tends 
to  the  annihilation  of  moral  evil ;  that  knowledge  is 
virtue  and  vice  is  ignorance ;  that  sin  is  a  bugbear,  not 
a  reality  ;  that  the  Creator  does  not  punish  except  in 
the  sense  of  correcting  ;  that  vengeance  in  Him  would 
of  necessity  be  vindictiveness ;  that  all  we  know  of 
Him,  be  it  much  or  little,  is  through  the  laws  of  na- 
ture ;  that  miracles  are  impossible  ;  that  prayer  to  Him 
is  superstitious  ;  that  the  fear  of  Him  is  unmanly  ; 


APPENDIX.  80lX 

that  sorrow  for  sin  is  slavish  and  abject;  that  the  only 
intelligent  worship  of  Him  is  to  act  well  our  part  in  the 
world,  and  the  only  sensible  repentance  to  do.  better  in 
the  future  ;  that  if  we  do  our  duties  in  this  life  we  may 
take  our  chance  for  the  next,  aLd  that  it  is  of  no  us -3 
perplex  ng  our  minds  about  our  future  state,  for  it  is 
all  a  matter  of  guess."  It  is  generally  agret  d  that  Ihe 
predominant  materialism,  by  contracting  the  sphere  of 
man,  has  dwindled  and  dwarfed  mm  himself,  Mr. 
Mill  admits  that  the  age  is  not  favorable  to  the  produc- 
tion of  great  men.  In  his  dissertations  he  utters  la- 
mentations over  "  the  decay  of  individual  energy  and 
the  weakening  of  the  influeLce  of  superior  minds  over 
the  multitude. "  Lecky  says  the  age  is  "  mercenary, 
venal,  unheroic  :"  that  *'it  exhibits  a  decli'  e  in  the 
spirit  cf  self -sacrifice  in  the  appreciation  of  the  more 
poelical  or  religious  aspect  of  man's  nature. "  Mr.  Car- 
lyle  thinks  we  have  lost  the  true  conception  of  human 
greatness  ;  •'  that  the  gre  t  men  of  this  age  are  lucky 
or  unlucky  gamblers,  swollen  big.  The  conception  of 
man,  as  a  mere  wealth-producing  animal,  is  probably 
the  lowest  which  it  is  possible  to  entertain  of  him,  and 
he  has  sunk  to  its  level."  Men  of  learning  and  pro- 
found reflection  begin  to  doubt  "  whether  it  is  possible 
.for  the  existing  frame- work  of  civil  society  to  hold  to- 
gether without  the  principle  of  cohesion  supplied  by 
the  truths  which  it  has  cast  away." 

The  masses  are  daily  increasing  in  intelligence;  and  as 
t  ey  increase  in  intel  igence,  so  do  they  become  less 
tolerant  of  the  existing  division  of  wealth,  and  more 
sceptical  as  to  the  rights  cf  property.  Capital  is  in 
the  hands  of  a  few,  the  many  are  condemned  to  lives 
of  unceasing,  monotonous  toil.  Their  relations  with 
their  employers  are  strictly  regulated  by  money  pay- 
ments, which  represent  but  an  insignificant  portion  of 
the  results  of  their  tcil.  Money,  and  the  things  which 


302  NOTES    FROM    AMERICAN    SOURCES. 

money  purchases,  they  see  universally  recognized  as 
the  summum  bonum.  One  thing  alone  can  reconcile 
them  to  their  lot — faith  in  the  teachings  of  Christiani- 
ty, The  sacrifice  of  enjoyments  and  the  endurance  of 
sufferings  become  rational  only  -when  compensating 
advantage  can  be  expected.  The  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ  alone  holds  out  to  them  that  compensating  ad- 
vantage. Victor  Hugo  has  well  said  :  "Give  to  the 
toiling  masses,  for  whom  this  world  is  so  evil,  belief 
in  a  better  world  made  for  them,  and  they  will  be 
tranquil,  they  will  be  patient.  Patience  is  born  of 
hope. "  The  civilization  of  our  age  has  taken  away 
this  argument  for  resignation.  It  denies  that  belief  in 
a  better  world,  and  enforces  upon  the  people  a  system 
of  education  in  which  no  word  can  be  heard  of  that 
higher  hope. 

In  this  country  we  do  not  find  from  the  statistical 
reports  of  our  penitentiaries  that  the  diffusion  of  intel- 
ligence alone  suffices  to  arrest  the  commission  of  crime. 
In  Pennsylvania,  complete  statistical  reports  are  kept, 
and  we  find  that  the  number  of  prisoners  received  into 
the  penitentiary  of  that  State,  from  1850  to  1860  was 
1/392,  of  whom  fifteen  per  cent,  were  illiterate,  fifteen 
per  cent,  able  to  read,  and  seventy  per  cent,  knew  how 
to  read  and  write;  from  1860  to  1870,  2,383  prisoners 
were  received  into  the  penitentiary,  and  of  these  seven- 
teen per  cent,  were  illiterate,  twelve  per  cent,  could 
read,  and  about  seventy-one  per  cent,  could  read  and 
write.  Of  the  627  convicts  who  were  in  the  peniten- 
tiary during  the  year  1867,  about  sixty- two  per  cent. , 
or  five-eighths,  had  attended  the  public  schools  of  the 
State,  and  twenty-five  percent.,  or  two-eighths,  had 
gone  to  private  institutions;  and  twelve  percent.,  or 
one-eighth,  had  never  gone  to  school. 

Dr.  Laing,  whose  testimony  will  not  be  questioned, 
as  he  was  an  enlightened  minister  of  the  Church  of 


APPENDIX.  303 

Scotland,  thus  speaks  of  the  Prussian  system  of  edu- 
cat  on  and  its  results:  "  If  (he  ultimate  object  of  all 
education  and  knowledge  be  to  raise  man  to  the  feeling 
of  his  own  moral  worth,  to  a  sense  of  his  own  responsi- 
bility to  his  Creator,  and  to  his  conscience  for  every  act, 
to  the  dignity  of  a  reflecting,  self -guiding,  virtuous, 
religious  member  of  society,  then  the  educational  bys- 
tem  i.i  a  failure.  It  is  only  a  training  from  childhood 
in  the  conventional  discipline  and  submission  of  mind 
which  the  State  exacts  from  its  subjects.  It  is  not  a 
training  or  education  which  has  raised,  but  which  has 
lowered  the  human  character.  The  social  value  or  im- 
portance of  the  Prussian  arrangements  for  diffusing 
national  scholastic  education  has  been  evidently  over- 
rated, for  now  that  the  whole  system  has  been  in  the 
fullest  operation  in  society  upon  a  whole  generation, 
we  see  morals  and  religion  in  a  more  unsatisfactory 
state  in  this  very  country  than  in  almost  any  other  in 
the  north  of  Europe,  We  see  nowhere  a  people  in  a 
more  abject  political  and  civil  condition,  or  with  less 
free  agency  in  their  social  economy.  A  national  edu- 
cation, which  gives  a  nation  neither  religion,  nor 
morality,  nor  civil  liberty,  nor  political  liberty,  is  an 
education  not  worth  having.  If  to  read,  write,  cypher, 
or  sing,  be  education,  the  Prussian  subject  is  an  edu- 
cated man.  If  to  reason,  j  udge  and  act  as  an  independent 
free  agent  in  the  religious,  moral  and  social  relations 
of  man  to  his  Creator  and  to  his  fellow-men,  be  the  ex- 
ercise of  mental  powers,  which  alone  deserves  the 
name  of  education,  then  is  the  Prussian  subject  a  mere 
drum  boy  in  the  cultivation  and  use  of  all  that  regards 
the  moral  and  intellectual  endowments  of  man,  com- 
pared to  one  of  the  uncultured  population  of  a  free 
country."  I  am  now  combating  the  idea  that  true 
civilization  is  dependent  solely  on  the  diffusion  of  in- 
telligence; I  by  no  means  underrate  the  value  of  edu- 


804  NOTES   FKOM    AMEKICAN    SOUKCES. 

cation  as  an  element  of  social  and  moral  progress;  and 
the  Catholic  Church  has  at  all  times  and  in  all  ages 
promoted,  encouraged  and  established  the  institutions 
learning,  and  (Ecumenical  Councils  have  command(  d 
the  clergy  to  establish  parochial  schools  for  the  free 
education  of  the  poor. 

Catholic  countries  compare  favorably  with  others  in 
their  efforts  to  promote  the  education  of  the  peop  e. 
The  school  attendance,  compared  with  the  population, 
is  in  Austria  as  1  to  10,  in  Belgium  as  1  to  10-1-2,  in 
Catholic  Switzerland  as  1  to  16,  in  England  as  1  to  17, 
in  Bavaria  as  1  to  7.  Austria,  Bavaria,  Belgium  and 
Ireland  have  proportionately  a  larger  school  attend- 
ance than  England.  England  and  Wales,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  22.712,000,  of  whom  only  half  were  registered, 
and  not  half  of  these  attended  with  sufficient  regularity 
to  bring  grants  their  schools.  Ireland,  with  a  popula- 
tion of  5,411,416,  had  on  register  1,006,546,  or  nearly 
half  as  many  as  England  and  Wales,  though  her  popu- 
lation is  not  a  fourth  of  that  of  these  two  countries. 
Dr.  Laing,  speaking  of  Home  as  it  was  under  the 
Popes,  says:  "The  statistical  fact  that  Eome  has 
above  a  hundred  schools  more  than  Berin  for  a  popu- 
lation a  little  more  than  h&lf  that  of  Berlin,  puts 
to  flight  a  world  of  humbug,  about  systems  of  national 
education,  carried  on  by  governments,  and  their  moral 
effects  on  society.  In  Catholic  Germany,  in  France, 
Italy,  and  even  Spain,  the  education  of  the  common 
people  in  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  music,  manners 
and  morals,  is  at  least  as  generally  diffused  and  as 
faithfully  promoted  by  the  Church  body  as  in  Scot- 
lahd.  It  is  by  their  own  advance,  and  not  by  keeping 
back  the  advance  of  the  people,  the  Papist  priesthood 
of  the  present  day  seek  to  keep  ahead  of  the  intellectual 
progress  of  the  community  in  Catholic  lands;  and  they 
might,  perhaps,  retort  to  our  Presbyterian  clergy,  and 


APPENDIX.  305 

ask  if  they,  too,  are  in  their  countries  at  the  head  of 
the  intellectual  movements  of  the  age.  Education  is 
in  reality  not  only  not  repressed,  but  is  encouraged  by 
the  Popish  Church,  and  is  a  mighty  instrument  in  its 
hands,  and  ably  used." 

If  morality  be  the  criterion  of  true  civilization,  it 
cannot  be  said  that  those  countries  in  which  the  Cath- 
olic religion  has  prevailed  will  suffer  by  comparison 
with  non-Catholic  natiocs.  The  journals  of  the  Statis- 
tical Society  of  London  for  the  year  1860,  1862,  1865, 
and  1867  give  the  number  of  illegitimate  births  in  the 
hundred  as  follows:  1828  to  1837,  kingdom  >«f  Sar- 
dinia, 2.1;  1859,  Spain,  5.6;  1853,  Tuscany,  6;  1858, 
7.4;  1858,  France,  7.8;  1851,  Austria,  9;  1865-6,  Ire- 
land, 3  8;  Catholic  Prussia,  5.1;  1859,  Belgium,  7.4; 
1856,  Sicily. 

Non-Catholic  countries — 1859,  England  and  Wales, 
6.5;  1855,  Norway,  9.3;  1858,  non-Catholic  Prussia, 
9.3;  1855,  Sweden,  9.5;  1855,  Hanover,  9.9;  1866, 
Scotland,  10.1;  1855,  Denmark,  11.5;  1838  to  1847, 
Iceland,  14;  1858,  Saxony,  16;  1857,  Wurtemburg, 
16.1.  In  Holland  and  Switzerland,  where  nearly  half 
the  population  is  Catholic,  the  proportion  is  as  follows: 
1859,  Holland,  4.1;  Switzerland,  6.  It  will  be  per- 
ceived that  France  stands  higher  than  any  non-Cath- 
olic country  except  England  and  Wales,  but  England 
and  Wales  are  below  other  countries,  and  far  below 
Ireland.  In  Scotland  the  number  of  illegitimate  births 
in  proportion  to  the  population  is  three  times  greater 
than  in  Ireland,  and  in  England  Wales  there  are  twice 
as  many;  and  in  non-Catholic  Prussia  the  percentage 
is  a  third  greater  than  in  Catholic  Prussia.  Lecky,  in 
speaking  of  Ireland,  seems  to  complain  of  the  chastity 
of  its  people.  "Had  the  Irish  peasants  been  less 
chaste,"  he  says,  "they  would  have  been  more  pros- 
perous. Had  that  fearful  famine  which,  in  the  present 


306  NOTES    FBOM   AMEBICAN    SOUBCES. 

century,  desolated  the  land,  fallen  upon  a  people  who 
tn ought  more  of  accumulating  subsistence  than  of 
avoiding  sin,  multitudes  might  now  be  living  who 
perished  by  literal  starvation  on  the  dreary  hills 
01  Limerick  and  Skibbereen." 

There  Is  not  in  all  Europe  a  more  thoroughly  anti- 
Catholic  country  than  Sweden.  In  1838  Mr.  Laing 
visited  Sweden,  and  he  declares  that  its  people, 
although  almost  entirely  rural,  are  at  the  very  bottom 
of  the  scale  of  European  morality.  In  1836  one  per- 
son out  of  every  112 — women,  infants,  and  sick  all  in- 
cluded-^had  been  accused  of  crime,  and  one  out  of 
every  134  convicted  and  punished.  In  1838  there  were 
born  in  Stockholm  2,714  children,  of  whom  1,577  were 
legitimate,  and  1,137  illegitimate.  Drunkenness  was 
more  common  there  than  in  any  other  country  in  the 
world.  Nearly  40,000,000  gallons  of  liquor  were  con- 
sumed in  1850  by  a  population  of  only  3,006,000, 
which  gives  thirteen  gallons  of  intoxicating  drink  to 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  kingdom.  Com- 
pare the  Swedish  people  with  the  pastoral  population 
of  Catholic  Switzerland  and  the  Tyrol. 

Alison,  in  speaking  of  the  Tyrol  ese,  was  forced  to 
admit  that  the  Catholic  religion  "  yet  preserved  enough 
of  the  pure  spirit  of  its  divine  origin  to  influence  in  a 
great  measure  the  conduct  of  their  private  lives."  In 
Scotland  illegitimacy  is  more  common  in  the  country 
than  in  the  towns  and  cities  ;  in  England,  also,  it  is 
more  prevalent  in  the  rural  districts  than  in  the  cities ; 
whereas,  in  Prance,  it  is  just  the  reverse.  In  the 
country  districts  cf  England  we  have  the  following 
rate :  Nottingham,  8.9 ;  York  North  Biding,  8.9 ; 
Salop,  9.8  ;  Westmoreland,  9.7  ;  Norfolk,  10.7 ;  Cum- 
berland, 11.4.  In  France — Kural  districts,  4.2  ;  La 
Vendee,  2.2  ;  Brittany  Cote  d'Or,  1.2.  Thus  in  the 
most  Catholic  rural  districts  of  France  there  are  only 


APPENDIX.  307 

one  or  tv\*o  illegitimate  births  in  the  hundred.  This  is 
also  true  of  Prussia,  whose  most  thoroughly  Catholic 
pro  vine  es  are  Westphalia  and  the  Khineland ;  in 
Westphalia  the  rate  of  illegitimacy  is  three  and  a  half 
in  every  hundred  births,  and  in  the  Rhine' and  only 
three  and  one-third  ;  but  in  Poinerania  and  Branden- 
burg, both  thoroughly  non-Catholic,  ther^  are  ten  to 
twelve  illegitimate  births  in  the  hundred.  If  we  turn 
to  Ireland,  the  rate  for  the  whole  island  is  3.8  per 
cent. ;  t  e  lowest  proportion  is  in  Connaught,  ninete  n- 
twentieths  of  who-e  people. _are  Catholic  ;  and  the 
greatest  is  Ulster,  half  of  whose  population  is  non- 
Catholic.  The  Scotsman,  a 'leading  paper  in  Scot- 
land, says  in  June,  1869:  "The  sum  of  the  whole 
matter  is  that  semi-Presbyterian  and  semi-Scotch  Ul- 
ster is  fully  three  times  ^more  immoral  than  wholly 
Irish  Connaught,  which  corresponds  with  wonderful 
accuracy  to  the  more  general  fact,  that  Scotland  as  a 
whole  is  three  times  more  immoral  than  Ireland  as  a 
whole."  I  do  not  consider  that  material  prosperity 
has  any  relation  whatever  to  religion,  and  therefore 
the  military  power  or  the  wealth  of  a  .nation  cannot 
with  justice  be  regarded  as  the  result  of  the  religion 
of  its  people. 

Spain,  when  at  the  height  of  its  power  arid  grandeur, 
was  more  Catholic  than  she  has  been  since  her  decline 
in  the  scale  of  nations.  France  has  been  great  from 
the  days  of  Charles  Martel  to  the  present  hour,  not- 
withstanding her  defeat  in  the  Prussian  war.  She  has 
ever  been  foremost  in  tha  rank  of  civilized  nations,  and 
except  from  the  short  period  from  1789  to  1815,  her 
people  have  steadfastly  adhered  to  the  religion  of  their 
forefathers.  While  the  Venetian  Republic  was  most 
powerful,  and  into  Venice  the  streams  of  commerce 
poured  untold  wealth,  her  Doge,  her  Council,  and  her 
people  were  staunch  believers  in  the  Catholic  faith. 


S08  NOTES    FROM    AMEKICAN   SOUKCES. 

Holland  in  her  greatest  prosperity  was  non-Catholic. 
Her  TV  ligion  remains  the  same,  although  her  fl  ets  no 
Lnger  c  mmand  the  ocean.  It  is,  therefore,  manifest 
t  .at  religion  has  but  little,  if  any,  influence  on  the 
more  material  development  of  nations,  or  their  rise  or 
decline  in  the  scale  of  power  and  pro.- peri ty  are  to  be 
a  tributtd  .to  other  causes  than  dogmas  of  faith.  The 
truth  is,  the  Catholic  Church  alone,  with  its  great  spir- 
itual organization,  can  check  a  materialism  wi.ich  erects 
the  State  as  the  Golden  Calf  to  be  adored,  and  can  pr  - 
ven",  L.e  State,  by  absorbing  the  individual,  from  de- 
s. raying  civil  and  political  liberty." 

WHAT   SPAIN   SHOWED   IN   THE   CENTENNIAL     EXPOSITION. 

That  bitterly  Protestant  journal  of  New  York,  the 
Times,  is  constrained  by  the  facts,  wrote  The  Catholic 
Review,  in  September,  1876,  to  permit  its  correspon- 
dent in  Philadelphia  to  bear  this  further  testimony  to 
the  work  of  a  Catholic  nation  which,  according  to  the 
popular  American  notion,  is  "  played  out. "  The  Cen- 
tennial Exposition  will  teach  the  average  American 
Protestant  many  things: 

"  Colonel  Francisco  Lopez  Fabra,  the  chief  Spanish 
Commissioner,  has  remained  at  his  post  during  all  the 
heats  of  summer  with  remarkable  singleness  of  pur- 
pose. The  Spanish  certainly  teach  us  a  lesson  of  pure 
nobility  in  many  ways.  Their  departments  are  fitted 
up  as  museums,  and  off  r  enormous  contra -ts  .to  thosj 
of  almost  every  other  na  ion,  which  are  fitted  up  like 
retail  stores.  They  came  here  ent  rely  from  good  wi  1, 
without  a  thought  of  making  money  by  the  sale  of 
their  goods,  for  the  men  who  sent  them,  in  nine-tenths 
of  the  whole  Spanish  display,  sent  no  price  list.  When 


APPENDIX. 

it  became  evident  that  there  were  many  would-be  pur- 
chasers, the  Spanish,  instead  of  taking  advantage  of 
the  enthusiasm  over  their  Woolen  fabrics  and  their 
damascened  ware,  placed  upon  them  the  most  moder- 
ate prices.  Their  superb  porous  water  coolers—41  al- 
carazas  "—were  valued  at  forty-five,  fifty,  and  sixty 
cents  apiece;  their  lustred  porcelain  and  their  fine 
specimens  of  glassware  in  proportion.  The  experience 
of  those  xvho  are  desirous  of  buying  Various  objects  is 
that  there  are  not  a  few  nations  who  have  no  fixed 
price,  and  who  ask  three  times  what  they  are  willing  to 
take.  And  among  those  who  are  more  conscientious 
the  prices  are  exceedingly  high,  and  when  the  duties 
are  addtd  to  them  they  become  absolutely  prohibitory. 
There  are  very  few  countries  whose  objects  are  as 
cheap  and  whose  methods  are  as  honorable  as  the 
Spanish,  and  at  the  same  time  there  is  not  one  whose 
ware  B  are  so  distinctly  marked  with  the  seal  of  nation- 
ality. Col.  Fabra  is  undeniably  greatly  pleased  at  the 
appreciative  reception  which  the  Spanish  display  has 
met  in  merica,  and  he  has  evinced  this  in  many  ways, 
but  in  nothing  more  nobly  than  in  the  manner  in  which 
the  most  expensive  works  on  architecture  and  art,  with 
volumes  of  exquisite  etchings,  and  volumes  of  photo- 
graphs of  Spanish  cathedrals  gf  the  grand  Gothic  type 
havo  been  sum  ndered  to  the  public  hands.  In  the 
Spanish  Government  building,  which  the  commission 
fondly  c  11  the  House  of  the  King,  (for  they  entertain 
a  personal  regard  for  their  young  Alfonso,  like  the 
feeling  the  English  have  for  their  Queen)  these  valu- 
able books  are  spread  out  upon  comfortable  counters 
for  the  convenience  of  the  public.  Col.  Fabra  was 
remonstrated  with  by  zealous  Philadelphians:  *  Your 
beautiful  books  will  be  destroyed;  put  them  under 
glass  ca-es.J  *Not  at  all/  said  Col.  Fabra,  'they  are 
here  to  be  destroyed,  if  using  them  wilt  do  it.  It  will 


31QT  NOTES    FROM    AMERICAN    SOURCES. 

be  sufficient  recompense  to  us  if  but  one  man  out  cf  all 
who  turn  over  the  leaves  gets  a  new  thought  for  his 
art  or  a  new  comprehension  of  Spa:n.  And  the  more 
they  are  used  the  better  will  Spain  be  known.  I 
sin  uld  be  as  named  to  take  them  back  to  Spain  ciean 
and  new  and  unused. '  Now  that  was  very  noble,  and 
was  in  accordance  with  the  old  idea  of  the  Spanish 
hidalgo  pur  sang.  Certainly  all  Spain's  chivalry  has 
not  been  laughed  away  by  Cervantes. 

Throughout  the  summer  Col.  Fabra  and  his  assis- 
tants, Count  Donadio,  Alvaro  de  la  Gandara,  and  Col. 
Marin,  have  remained,  working  away  at  the  Spanish 
display,  writing  to  Spain  for  new  things  and  arranging 
them  to  the  best  advantage.  The  treasures  cf  the 
Goveruinent  building,  or  the  House  of  the  King,  are 
so  numerous  that  they  demand  the  exclusive  attention 
of  a  separate  article.  But,  not  satisfied  W;th  this  dis- 
play or  with  the  numerous  things  that  have  already 
been  added  in  other  quarters,  Col.  .Fabra  wrote  to 
Spain  for  photographic  views  of  Los  Palos,  the  port 
from  which  Columbus  sailed  for  this  land,  and  of  the 
Convent  of  La  Rabida,  where  he  found  refuge.  These 
have  just  arrived  and  are  about  to  be  exhibited  in  the 
Main  Building.  They  will  be  placed  in  a  square  frame, 
supported  by  a  pedestal  about  five  leet  in  height,  and 
full  descriptions  in  English  text  will  be  placed  at  the 
head  of  each  photograph.  The  Spanish  Commission  r 
was  induced  to  do  this  because  he  found  in  America  a 
great  interest  in  ail  the  things  that  concerned  Colum- 
bus, whose  lifo  has  been  so  pleasantly  p  rtrayed  by 
Washington  Irving  as  to  make  its  details  very  well 
known  to  people  of  education.  There  was  a  w^  rid  of 
kindly  thoughtfulness  in  the  act,  whkTi  me. its  the 
heartiest  appreciation  at  our  hands,  and  it  is  entirely 
in  keeping  with  the  conduct  of  the  Spanish  Commis- 
sion since  they  arrived  in  this  country.  The  lovers  of 


APPENDIX.  311 

fine  etching  will  be  surprised"  at  the  importance  and 
value  of  the  works  which  have  been  surrencbre  i  to  the 
public  mercy,  and  will  estimate  afc  its  wordi  the  noble 
generosity  of  the  Spania  els.  The  works  on  architec- 
ture, though  purely  of  Spanish  origin,  have  a  French 
paraphrase  side  by  side  with  the  Spanish  text,  so  that 
thosa  who  desire  to  study  them  can  do  so  if  they 
possess  either  of  these  languages.  The  illustrations 
are  ol  the  first  order  and  show  a  fine  mastery  over 
chromo-lithography.  GAB." 

SPAIN   AND  BRAZIL   SURPRISING  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

We  hear  so  much  of  the  sleepiness,  backwardness, 
and  "  effeteness  "  of  Catholic  nations,  especially  the 
Spanish  races,  said  The  Catholic  Review  in  July  1876, 
that  it  is  w  xrth  while  to  consider  how  they  strike  the 
visitors  to  the  Centennial  Exposition.  We  therefore 
make  two  long  extracts  from  the  Protestant  New  York 
Tribune: 

SPAIN'S  GEEAT  DISPLAY. 

A   SURPRISE   TO   ALL   VISITORS — PUZZLED  VISITORS. 

[From  the  Regular  Correspondent  of  the  New  York  Tribune.] 

"  PHILADELPHIA,  July  5. — There  is  nothing  about 
the  details  of  the  Exhibition  that  is  a  greater  surprise 
to  mo>  t  visitors  than  the  part  Spain  takes  in  it.  Her 
display  in  the  Main  Building  behind  her  castellated 
structure,  with  all  its  allegorical  and  armorial  decora- 
tions, would  alone  be  a  highly  creditable  representa- 
tion of  the  Castilian  monarchy.  It  is  rich  in  the  evi- 
dence of  a  varied  and  "  high  developed  manufacturing 
industry  which  few  Americans  imagined  existed  on  the 
sleepy  peninsula,  and  the  multitude  of  wares  and  fab- 
rics shown  are  doubly  interesting  on  account  of  an 


312  NOTES   FKOM    AMERICAN    SOURCES. 

evident  stamp  of  originality,  either  in  form  or  orna- 
mentation, that  shows  them  to  be  something  better 
than  servile  copies  of  the  products  of  other  nations. 
The  wealth  of  natural  products  exhibited  in  the  Span- 
ish section  of  Agricultural  Hall  calls  for  almost  as 
much  admiration  for  the  multitude  of  articles  it  con- 
tains and  the  intelligence  and  system  that  characterize 
their  arrangement,  as  well  as  the  liberal  enterprise 
that  has  gathered  them  from  all  the  provinces  of  the 
king  om  and  from  all  colonial  lands  under  Spanish  rule. 

With  these  two  strikingly  thorough  and  well-ordered 
displays  Spain  might  have  been  not  only  content  but 
proud  of  her  accomplishments  at  the  Fair;  but  she 
has  just  opened  a  third  exhibit  larger  than  either  of 
the  others.  It  is  made  in  a  handsome  frame  building 
erected  at  the  cost  of  the  Madrid  Government  on  the 
slope  of  George's  Hill,  near  the  Japanese  dwelling. 
I  have  not  the  dimensions  of  the  structure,  but  I  should 
say  that  it  cannot  be  less  tnan  150  feet  long  by  100 
wide.  Its  construction  was  not  begun  until  after  the 
Exhibition  opened,  and  went  on  rather  slowly  under 
the  management  of  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  de- 
tachment of  Boyal  engineers  that  came  here  under  the 
orders  of  the  Spanish  commission.  The  fa9ade  of  the 
building  bears  a  sign  with,  the  word  Espana,  but  this 
appears  to  be  no  guide  to  the  majority  of  visitors,  who 
enter  the  hall  without  knowing  what  country  it  be- 
longs to.  "If  they  mean  Spain,  why  don't  they  say 
so?"  said  an  old  countryman  to-day  after  he  had 
learned  by  questioning  the  character  of  the  building. 
Like  thousands  of  other  visitors,  he  did  not  know  that 
many  geograpical  names  are  badly  tortured  in  the 
process  of  transforming  them  into  shape  for  English 
tongues  to  pronounce. 

The  exhibits  in  the  hall  are  divided  into  three  classes 
— military,  educational,  and  products  of  the  Philippine 


APPENDIX.  313 

Islands,  the  former  occupying  the  centre  and  the  two 
latter  the  sides  of  tl.e  hall.  In  the  military  section 
there  are  remarkably  fine  models  illustrating  systems 
of  fortifications,  and  others  representing  barracks,  for- 
tified towns,  bridges,  harbors,  ancient  aqued rets.  One 
of  immense  size  shows  the  face  of  the  country  in  which 
the  Spanish  troops  operated  during  the  African  cam- 
paign of  1859-60,  and  their  different  encampments — 
the  sea,  the  mountains,  streams,  roads,  towns  and  cul- 
tivated fields  all  appearing  in  miniature.  Breech- 
loading  artillery,  small  arms  of  the  Bemington  pattern, 
and  c  f  a  device  resembliug  tli3  Springfield  rifle,  camp 
and  hospital  equipage,  models  of  field  and  siege  artil- 
tery  trains,  with  well-modeled  horses  about  a  foot  high 
attached,  lay-figures  of  soldiers  in  uniform,  fill  the 
section.  The  military  exhibit  is  larger  than  that  made 
at  the  fair  by  any  other  foreign  nation,  and  in  com- 
pleteness and  excellence  it  has  uo  competitor,  except 
the  Russian  display  in  Machinery  Hall. 

The  educational  group  contains  a  large  collection  of 
books  of  science,  law,  medicine,  and  general  literature 
that  is  calculated  to  give  rather  an  exaggerated  idea  of 
the  intellectual  activity  of  Spain.  It  is  particularly 
rich  in  handsomely  illustrated  works  and  in  editions  of 
the  Spanish  classics.  Of  school  books,  furniture,  and 
apparatus  there  is  an  obvious  lack.  Good  photographs 
are  shown  by  the  artists  of  Madrid,  Seville  and  Barce- 
lona. A  collection  of  plaster  casts  from  the  Alhambra 
furnishes  material  f  ;r  the  study  01  Moorish  architect- 
ure; and  there  are  plenty  of  drawings  and  photographs 
of  mod  rn  buildings,  public  and  private.  The  art 
schools  show  their  work  in  numerous  portfolios.  The 
larg^  Government  maps  hung  on  the  walls  show  how 
carefully  the  country  has  been  surveyed  for  military 
purposes,  and  are  besides  excellent  specimens  of  the 
cartographic  art. 


314  NOTES    FEOM  AMEKICAN    SOURCES. 

The  section  devoted  to  the  products  of  the  Phillip- 
pines  occupies  about  a  quarter  of  the  floor  space  of  the 
buildh  g.  Specimens  of  native  woods  in  profusion,  a 
variety  of  products  in  glass  jars,  stuffed  animals  and 
birds,  models  of  water  craft  of  various  kinds,  mats  and 
cordage,  and  photographs  of  the  aborigines  are  among 
the  objects  to  be  seen  here.  The  importance  of  the 
islands  to  Spain  is  forcibly  illustrated  by  the  liberal 
space  and  prominent  position  assigned  to  their  contri- 
butions. 

BRAZIL. 

[From  the  Correspondent  of  the  New  York  Tribune.} 
Americans  coming  into  the  Brazilian  department 
quicken  their  steps  and  look  about  with  a  glow  of 
friendly  feeling.  They  are  strangers  that  have  sud- 
denly proved  kinsfolk,  and  given  us,  in  this  te^t-time, 
foe  most  cordial  brotherly  recognition  and  help.  A 
learnt  d  member  of  their  commission  put  the  case 
strongly  the  other  day :  "  We  are  Americans,  as  you  ; 
we  claim  to  be  as  free  a  people  as  you  ;  the  only  differ- 
ence is  that,  with  our  Emperor,  we  are  not  vexed  with 
the  turmoil  of  choosing  a  ruler  once  in  four  years." 
The  truth  is  that  visitors  have  heretofore  done  little  to 
seduce  us  from  our  allegiance  to  democracy ;  but  a 
King  like  Dom  Pedro,  wlio  comes  to  the  country  to 
talk  with  its  statesmen,  savants,  and  poets,  who  looks 
into  the  workings  of  schools,  newsboys'  homes,  manu- 
factories, and  asylums,  that  he  may  the  better  uplift 
and  ennoble  his  own  people,  is  a  dangerous  man  in  a 
republic.  What  the  central  and  provincial  Govern- 
ments of  Brazil  under  the  sagacious  head  are  doing  to 
elevate  the  people  is  shown  to  us  in  the  school  exhibits 
under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Philippe  da  Motta.  No  ed- 
ucation-al  department  in  the  Exhibition  surpasses  this  in 
breadth  of  scope  and  accuracy  of  detail.  The  books,  maps, 


APPENDIX.  315 

pictures,  and  cases  of  brilliant  insects  are  all  arranged, 
too,  with  an  artistic  sense  of  color  and  effect  which 
Lints  that  their  director  belongs  to  the  tropics.  The 
popular  American  idea  that  the  lives  of  these  tropical 
brethren  of  ours  is  a  dreamy  afternoon  siesta,  will  re- 
ceive a  shock  when  we  look  into  their  public  school 
system.  The  little  Joses  and  Salomes  in  the  cities 
have  small  leisure  for  dreams  of  any  sort.  From  the 
age  of  five  to  twelve  they  are  compelled  to  attend  the 
primary  schools.  In  the  country,  Brazil  being  so 
sparsely  tettled,  education  is  compulsory  in  but  part 
of  the  province,  but  the  governments  of  all  are  zealous 
in  urging  it  on  their  people.  In  these  free  primary 
schools  the  child  is  taught  to  read  by  the  sellable 
mode,  not  by  the  individual  letters.  In  schools  of  the 
first  degree  the  little  Brazilian  is  taught  Christian  doc- 
trines, reading,  writing,  elementary  notions  of  gram- 
mar, arithmetic,  and  a  system  of  weights  and  measures. 
In  the  second  grade  he  learns  the  history  and  doctrines 
of  the  Bible,  elements  of  profane  history,  geography, 
especially  of  Brazil,  of  physical  science,  of  natural  his- 
to;y,  geometry,  land  surveying,  lineal  drawing,  music 
of  both  kinds,  and  gymnastics.  Boys  and  girls  are 
rigorously  separated.  Women  are  employed  and  pre- 
ferred as  teachers  in  these  primary  schools,  receive  the 
same  salary  as  men,  and  offer  more  successful  results 
as  the  proof  of  their  efficiency.  While  there  are  many 
normal  schools,  the  ranks  of  teachers  are  frequently  re- 
cruited from  the  ordinary  schools.  A  pupil  receiving 
notes  of  distinction  is  permitted  to  act  as  assistant, 
thus  qualifying  himself  for  teacher.  Having  passed 
through  the  eight  classes  of  these  schools,  he  submits 
to  an  examination,  and  if  he  passes  becomes  an  assist- 
ant teacher  of  the  second  year,  with  salary,  a  system 
more  immediately  practical  than  that  of  Normal  schools. 
The  copy-books',  drawings  and  specimens  of  sewing 


316  NOTES   FBOM    AMEBIOAN    SOUBCES. 

from  these  public  schools  are  presented  with  more  fair- 
ness than  is  usual  in  other  exhibits  of  the  same  kind, 
as  we  have  the  bad  with  the  good,  and  specimens  yel- 
low with  age,  dating  back  nearly  twenty  years,  con- 
trasted with  those  of  last  winter  to  show  the  improve- 
ment in  the  systems.  The  chirography  is  unusually 
fair.  Whether  these  Brazilian  girls  will  ever  write  for 
the  press  is  problematic,  but  if  they  do  it  will  be  a  day 
marked  with  a  white  stone  for  the  printers.  One, 
Luiga  da  Alvarenga's  composition,  I  remember,  the 
script  of  which  would  make  a  compositor's  heart  leap 
for  joy.  Absolute  religious  toleration  is  practised  in 
the  schools,  as  in  every  department  of  Brazil.  Object 
teaching,  by  the  aid  of  pictures,  plastic  models,  and 
prepared  animals,  etc.,  is  used;  but  the  kindergarten 
is  not  known.  One  errand  of  the  Commission  here,  in- 
deed, is  to  secure  competent  lady  teachers  of  Froebel's 
system,  familiar  wifh  the  Portuguese  language,  who 
will  introduce  it.  Besides  these  public  schools  there 
are  private  institutions  of  every  grade,  from 
the  primary  to  the  lyceums,  and .  the  Imperial 
School  of  Dom  Pedro  II.,  in  the  capital. 
There  are,  too,  religious  seminaries,  naval  and  military 
systems  of  schools  for  artisans  and  workmen,  free 
night-schools  in  Bio  de  Janeiro,  where  more  than  1,000 
adults  are  taught,  and  numberless  private  classes  es- 
tablished by  wealthy  planters  for  the  benefit  of  their 
poorer  neighbors  or  former  slaves.  Dr.  da  Motta  has 
brought  representations  from  the  naval,  military,  and 
law  schools,  the  academies  of  free  art,  the  apparatus 
for  teaching  the  blind  and  specimens  of  their  work  and 
that  of  their  blind.  There  is  also  a  superb  and  com- 
plete collection  of  the  insects  of  Brazil,  intended  for 
presentation  to  one  of  our  scientific  institutions. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  educational  work  which 
lies  before  Brazil  is  but  fairly  begun ;  her  population 


APPENDIX.  317 

is  scattered  over  one- fifth  of  the  continent,  and  three- 
twelfths  of  it  are  savages  or  just  emancipated  slaves. 
But  in  her  efforts  there  are  shown  an  electric  energy 
and  a  sound  common  sense  which  promise  exceptional 
success.  One  proof  of  this  is  seen  in  the  high  salaries 
and  respect  paid  to  teachers,  in  the  wise  policy  that  a 
man  must  be  relieved  of  anxiety  concerning  his  family 
if  you  would  have  his  best  work.  Another  proof  is  the 
fact  that  of  the  twenty  provinces  four  expend  one- 
sixth  of  their  annual  revenue  in  schools,  three  one- 
fifth,  six  one-fourth,  two  one-third,  and  the  remainder 
a  large  proportion.  In  addition  to  this  is  the  aid  from 
the  central  Government.  In  half  of  these  provinces 
and  in  all  the  cities  primary  education  is  compulsory. 
The  National  Library,  which  contains  over  120,000 
volumes,  to  which  every  decently  clothed  person  has 
free  access,  the  National  Museum,  whose  visitors  on 
Sundays  average  1,000,  and  numerous  polytechnic 
schools  and  libraries,  well  established  or  springing 
into  life  in  all  of  the  provinces,  testify  to  the  vigor  of 
her  intellectual  life.  B.  H.  D. 


PAPAL  TESTIMONY. 

EXTRACT  FBOM  THE  FIRST  ENCYCLICAL  OF  LEO  Xm.  ON 
THE   OBLIGATIONS  OF   CIVILIZATION  TO  THE  CHUBCH. 

We  know  with  certainty,  Venerable  Brethren,  that 
civilization  has  no  firm  foundation  unless  it  rests  upon 
the  eternal  principles  of  truth  and  upon  the  unchange- 
able laws  of  right  and  justice;  and  unless  true  love 
binds  the  wills  of  men  together,  and  harmonizes  by 
its  sweetness  their  mutual  relations  and  duties  to  each 
other.  Nor  is  there  any  one  who  can  rightly  deny 
that  it  is  the  Church  which,  by  preaching  the  Gospel 
throughout  the  world,  has  carried  the  light  of  truth 
amongst  nations  who  were  brutalized  and  steeped  in 


318  PAPAL  TESTIMONY. 

foul  superstition,  and  has  lifted  them  up  to  know  the 
Divine  Creator  of  the  world  and  to  recognize  their  own 
wretchedness ;  that  it  is  the  Church  which  has  re- 
moved the  misery  of  slavery,  and  thereby  restored  to 
men  the  first  dignity  and  nobility  of  their  nature ;  the 
Church  which,  unfurling  the  standard  of  redemption 
in  every  region  of  the  world,  has  introduced  or  devel- 
oped sciences  and  arts,  founded  and  sheltered  works 
of  the  highest  charity  for  the  relief  of  every  kind  of 
sorrow,  everywhere  civilized  the  human  race  in  its 
public  and  private  life,  rescued  it  from  its  misery, 
and  brought  it  by  every  possible  effort  to  a  manner  of 
life  befitting  the  dignity  and  the  hope  of  man.  If  any 
unprejudiced  man  would  compare  this  age  in  which 
we  live,  all  hostile  as  it  is  to  religion  and  Christ's 
Church,  with  those  most  happy  times  in  which  the 
Church  received  a  mother's  honor  from  the  world, 
most  surely  would  he  find  that  this  age  of  ours,  full  of 
disturbance,  and  pulling  all  things  down,  is  rushing 
by  a  straight  and  rapid  road  to  its  destruction ;  but 
that  those  days  enjoyed  excellent  institutions,  un- 
troubled peace,  wealth  and  prosperity,  in  the  exact 
proportion  in  which  the  nations  paid  obedience  to  the 
direction  and  laws  of  the  Church.  If,  however,  those 
numberless  benefits  which  we  have  now  mentioned,  as 
springing  from  the  ministry  and  useful  labors  of  the 
Church,  are  the  true  work  and  g  ory  of  civilization, 
then  it  is  by  no  means  the  case  that  Christ's  Church  is 
a  foe  to  civilization,  or  rejects  it:  rather  may  she  claim, 
that  to  her  by  every  title  belongs  the  praise  of  being 
to  civilization  a  fostering  nurse  and  mother. 

That  kind  of  so-called  civilization,  however,  which 
would  be  at  variance  with  the  doctrines  and  laws  of 
holy  Church,  cannot  be  regarded  as  other  than  a  mock- 
ery of  true  civilization,  a  mere  name  without  a  sub- 
stance. A  clear  proof  of  this  is  afforded  by  those 


APPENDIX.  319 

nations~6n  whom  the  light  of  the  Gospel  has  not  shone* 
in  who-e  lives  a  certain  color  of  civilization  can  be 
seen,  but  its  solid  and  true  benefits  are  not  there.  Cer- 
tainly, that  cannot  be  deemed  the  perfection  of  civil- 
ized life  in  which  every  lawful  power  is  boldly  con- 
temned; nor  is  that  to  be  counted  liberty  which  holds 
shameful  and  wretched  riot  in  the  unbridled  propaga- 
tion of  error,  in  the  free  satisfying  of  low  desires,  in 
unpunished  deeds  of  shame  and  sin,  and  in  tyranny 
over  good  men  of  every  social  rank.  For  since  these 
things  are  full  of  error,  since  they  distort  and  are  out 
of  harmony  with  our  nature,  they  cannot  certainly 
have  power  to  perfect  the  family  of  man  and  make  it 
prosperous,  for  "sin  maketh  nations  miserable/'*  Nay, 
it  cannot  be  but  that  these  things,  having  corrupted 
men's  minds  and  hearts,  should  by  their  own  weight 
thrust  down  the  nations  into  every  wickedness,  give 
insecurity  to  all  that  was  rightly  ordered,  and  so,  soon- 
er or  later,  drag  on  the  State  which  was  before  settled 
and  peaceful  into  uttermost  destruction. 

And  if  we  look  at  tb  e  history  of  the  Popes  of  Borne, 
what  can  be  more  unjust  than  to  deny  how  much,  huw 
far  above  all  others,  the  Roman  Pontiffs  have  deserved 
from  the  whole  of  civilized  society?  Most  certainly 
Our  Predecessors,  that  they  might  provide  for  the 
good  of  the  nations,  never  hesitated  to  take  on  them- 
selves struggles  of  every  kind,  to  go  through  severe 
labors,  to  expose  themselves  to  rude  difficulty:  fixing 
their  eyes  on  Heaven,  they  neither  lowered  that  gaze 
before  the  threats  of  the  wicked,  nor  suffered  them- 
selves to  be  drawn  away  from  the  straight  path  of  duty 
by  any  unworthy  yielding  to  flattery  or  promise.  It 
was  this  Apostolic  See  which,  when  the  old  world  fell 
to  pieces,  gathered  and  banded  together  the  remnants 
of  its  order;  this  See  was  the  friendly  torch  by  which 
*  Prov.  xiv.  34. 


320  PAPAL  TESTIMONY. 

the  light  of  Christian  civilization  shone  forth;  this  the 
saving  anchor  amicist  the  fierce  storms  by  which  the 
human  race  was  tossed;  this  the  sacred  bond  of  unity 
which,  when  nations  were  sundered  in  position  and  in 
character,  still  held  them  bound  to  one  another;  this, 
in  fine,  was  the  common  centre  from  which  were  sought 
both  teaching  in  religious  faith,  and  guidance  and  ad- 
vice in  the  affairs  of  peace.  In  a  word,  it  is  the  glory 
of  the  Popes  that  with  one  consent  they  have  thrown 
themselves  before  human  society  as  a  wall  and  tower 
of  defence,  lest  it  should  slip  back  again  into  its  former 
barbarism  and  superstition. 

For  such  merits  of  Our  Predecessors,  that  We  may 
not  record  all,  We  would  especially  call  in  witness  the 
times  of  St.  Leo  the  Great,  Alexander  III. ,  Innocent 
III. ,  St.  Pius  V. ,  Leo  X, ,  and  other  Pontiffs,  by  whose 
labor  or  guidance  Italy  came  forth  unhurt  from  the 
danger  of  utter  destruction  by  barbarians;  held  uncor- 
rupt  her  ancient  Faith;  and,  amidst  the  darkness  and 
wretchedness  of  an  uncivilized  age,  cherished  the  light 
of  the  sciences  and  the  splendor  of  the  arts,  bade  them 
live,  and  preserved  their  life.  Witness  this  City  of 
Ours,  Our  fostering  mother  and  the  seat  of  the  Pon- 
tiffs, which  through  them,  to  its  great  advantage,  has 
not  only  become  the  strongly  fortified  citadel  of  the 
Faith,  but  has  become  moreover  an  asylum  of  the  fine 
arts  and  the  home  of  learning,  so  as  to  draw  upon  itself 
the  admiring  gaze  of  the  whole  world.  And  since  the 
story  of  these  magnificent  benefits  has  been  handed 
down  in  the  records  of  history  to  the  memory  of  man 
forever,  it  is  easy  to  be  seen  that  by  no  other  means 
but  the  determined  will  of  foes  and  unworthy  slander 
could  men  have  been  beguiled,  by  word  and  writing 
thrust  upon  them,  into  believing  that  the  Apostolic 
See  is  a  hindrance  to  the  civilization  of  the  world  and 
to  the  happiness  of  Italy. 


